Dark Plains
by atheistbasementdragon
Summary: GR Branch story. Aura & Mare have gone to the dark elves, will they create a desert and call it peace, will a new kingdom rise? How will they ensure that the march through the northern mountains goes unopposed? Takes place concurrently with 'Under the Stone Sky' and branches off from Chapter 85 of God Rising.
1. The Great Plains

"Execute him." Chindai said in a cold, merciless voice. The other dark elves looked at him in shock, Chindai was a great warrior, but 'bloodthirsty' was not something commonly attributed to him. The captive dark elf kept secured on his knees struggled and gnashed his teeth angrily, but there was no moving, not with his wrists bound behind him and secured to his ankles. He looked up with hatred at Chindai and his pale wife.

"You can kill me. But it won't stop us." He said.

"Brave words, be glad we gave you the chance to say them." He said as he nodded to his wife. She walked gracefully behind him, letting her fingers trail at his neck in a gentle caress before she grabbed his hair at the base of his scalp, yanked it back so that he was staring at the blue sky above, and then smoothly drew her dagger out of its sheath and across his neck.

The blood spurted out and the whites of the victim's eyes widened as the realization set in that yes, he was indeed going to die. Khava had enjoyed her kill, she looked up at her husband and gave a very small, loving smile as the blood splashed across the feet of the chief.

If the dying dark elf had any other last words than brave ones, he no longer had the means to speak it, not with his vocal cords cut and blood spurting out like a river whose dam had just broken.

She held him still while his body shook and his natural dark, tan skin turned ever more pale, till it was almost the same shade as his southern killer. Eventually the life fled from his eyes, and she dropped him unceremoniously to fall at their feet.

"He was brave, at least." Chindai said, offering some reluctant praise as he looked at the corpse. When the last twitches ended, he looked up at the people who had gathered to watch. They were dressed much like himself, with leather garments made from animal hides, and armed with swords and bows, what distinguished himself from them was that his leather was white, while his wife's was black, while theirs was uniformly the natural shade of brown from the animals that had given them the leather in the first place. In addition, he wore his hair long behind him, wearing nine beads secured at the base. Most others wore their hair cropped short, though a few had a small number of beads of their own at the bottom of their own black hair.

That was what made Khava proudest, each bead represented a great victory, no other had won as many as her husband. But then, he'd had some assistance from her in the form of advice, which he was happy to take, as she'd demonstrated that she was no fool just by getting to them in the first place.

"You're probably wondering why I had him killed." Chindai said. The expressions of those watching said, 'Yes, that is exactly what we want to know'. "I did it because he was not here on the basis that he said he was. He was an assassin, sent to end my life, my wife's life, or both." His expression was grave, and theirs had become doubtful.

"How could you possibly know this?" Someone asked from the crowd.

"Because, he told me." Chindai said bluntly. Gasps of surprise greeted him, but before anyone could ask what madness would possess an assassin to confess to such a thing, he held his hands up to give them pause.

"No, not in words, but I watched him. As my wife walked away to fetch me on his arrival, I had already seen him enter our walls. It was his expression, as she showed her back to him, I saw the questioning on his face, wondering if perhaps now was a good opportunity, eyeing her back the way he did, there could be only one reason. He was no traitor to his chief, he was no outcast, he came to rob you of your own, to take away your chief or his wife, or perhaps both of us. Check him thoroughly, I am confident I will be proven right." Chindai's voice was so filled with confidence that the doubt began to fade, and so one of the crowd stepped forward and began to check the body.

It did not take long, hidden, bound up deep in the prisoner's long hair, was a very small knife, no bigger than a long finger, but it was coated in a sticky substance that appeared to be the same as the poisonous sap of the Khamara tree.

The little knife was cut free from the hair and thrown to the ground for all to see.

"They are getting desperate, husband." Khava said with both confidence and anger in her voice.

"Is anyone surprised?" Chindai asked as he looked around. Nobody spoke up, and for a long moment, not a sound was heard. That was, until Aura spoke as she drew closer to the tribe.

"Surprised about what?" Aura asked as she and her brother approached the gathered band.

Various figures in the crowd wore expressions that ranged from surprised to confused as they traded looks with one another. While the pair were clearly dark elf children, they did not dress like anyone who lived on the open plains or in the handful of field settlements like theirs. Their clothing was of much finer make, and just as importantly, they were completely unaccompanied, but most significantly of all... they had the eyes of royalty.

"Who... exactly are you?" Chindai asked with some modest concern as they came closer and the members of his tribe began to kneel. "Where are your parents?" He asked. Neither he nor his wife knelt, royalty or not, he was the chief, and his wife was his equal, they did not kneel.

"We don't have parents." Aura said in a bored voice, "We were created by a supreme being, though I guess..." She paused and put her forefinger just below her lip thoughtfully, "we could call Lord Ainz a kind of parent... or an uncle..."

"S-sister I don't think the others would l-like that..." Mare began to say, clutching at his staff nervously.

"I'm just kidding Mare." She said with a grin before she turned back to the now very confused tribal chief.

"Anyway, doesn't matter, don't worry about it, we're here to represent Lord Ainz in something very important." She said casually.

"Who?" Khava asked quizzically.

"You might have heard of him by title, he's the Sorcerer King, and he's currently fighting your neighbors, the Slane Theocracy." Aura said proudly.

Murmurs of approval ran through the crowd, as Chindai and Khava exchanged cautionary looks of optimism.

"And he sent children because?" Chindai asked dubiously.

"Toldja, we're creations of the supreme beings, going on a job like this is easy for us, and we've done it before." She said with abundant confidence.

"I find it hard to believe that you're being truthful about that, little boy." Khava said cautiously.

Aura looked angry at the doubt in the woman's voice. "I'm a girl."

"I'm sorry?" Khava said.

"I'm. A. Girl." Aura said. "As for the second thing, should I have my brother kill everyone here like he did in the Baharuth Empire? Will that be proof enough that we're competent to speak for the Supreme One?" She snapped out, and a wave of killing rage spread out from her body and swallowed the crowd.

The blood of the dark elves turned to ice as the terror swept over them, Aura's killing intent was like a winter storm, she drew it out, allowing them to feel the power at her command. Then it was gone, she cut it off in an instant, when their faces were as pale as that of the dead body. "Just kidding." She said with a big smile as she put her hands behind her head. "Just don't call me a liar again, m'kay?"

There were a great many nods around her.

"S-sister you're being rude." Mare said.

"Hush, Mare." Aura said bluntly, "Just getting to the point, we don't want to take all year to do this." She said with annoyance at her brother's timid rebuke.

"What... brother? I see only your sister?" Chindai managed to get out.

"I'm a boy." Mare replied.

"But..." He began.

"I'm... a... boy." Mare insisted, looking equal parts nervous and annoyed.

"So why... exactly are you two dressed like that?" Khava asked, grasping for anything to get rid of the lingering terror that had grasped her heart.

"Our creators decided that we should look and dress this way." Aura answered for them both. Now can we focus please?" She asked, her own annoyance evidently growing.

"Yes, fine, what exactly is it that you're here for?" Chindai asked as he decided that the only way to solve this mystery was to cut to the heart of the matter.

"Good, you're being direct, that'll make this easier." Aura said, all smiles as she spoke. "Well, the supreme one is at war with your southern neighbor, and he's gone to your northern neighbors, you know, the Understone Empire, and he's going to get their cooperation, so we're here for yours." She said.

"Cooperation in what?" Chindai asked in bewilderment.

"Well, he's going to have part of the mountain destroyed to make a road, then he's going to march an army through there, after he's finished having it flattened, and they're going to pass through here to go attack the Slane Theocracy. So, we want you to cooperate the same way the dark dwarves will." She said in a very serious voice.

There was a stunned silence. "I'm sorry, did you say... destroy part of the mountain?" Khava asked incredulously.

"Yes." Aura repeated. "What didn't you understand?"

"How that could happen, for starters." Chindai said, his voice one of abject disbelief.

"How many centuries is he expecting to fight this war, if that is his plan?" Khava asked, almost mockingly, but not quite.

"Oh, not long. He said it'll take about a week to handle all the destruction." Aura said as if she was announcing breakfast.

"Excuse us a moment." He said to the twins, who nodded politely as Chindai took his wife by the arm and walked her away from where everybody stood. "They can't be serious, can they?" He asked his wife.

She looked back over at the pair. "They sound serious, and... I did hear something, a while ago I guess, before I killed my master and escaped the Theocracy." Her voice became somewhat distant, uncertain.

"Well, what was it?" Chindai asked in a hoarse whisper.

"The human emperor in the north lost a hundred knights in one attack, not ordinary ones, elite ones, and he surrendered to the master of the ones who conducted the killing, which were supposedly two dark elf children of royal birth. Being... where I was, I heard lots of rumors, but at the time those seemed impossible. But what do we know?" She asked with some frustration.

"Well I did hear about the Slane Theocracy being at war with a neighbor, so it makes sense to send a speaker to us. Still, destroying part of the mountain of the Understone Empire is... it's just too much to accept." Chindai shook his head.

"Well, let's talk to them some more, see what we can find out, and just what kind of 'cooperation' they want from us." Khava said in a practical tone of voice.

"Fine." He replied, unable to think of any better alternative. They walked back over to the incredibly beautiful children.

"What kind of 'cooperation' do you want exactly?" He asked.

"Well, for starters, the bare minimum is that you stay out of the way while our armies march south to attack the Slane Theocracy border." Aura said simply.

"Well, that might be a problem." Chindai said.

"W-why?" Mare asked in confusion.

"In the first place, because I don't rule the plains, I only rule this area and some miles around, and even that is only for part of the year, in the spring and summer months we migrate like everybody else does." He explained patiently.

"But... you have buildings here." Aura said, gesturing around her like nobody had noticed them.

"Yes, but we only live here during the autumn and winter months, when we've gathered enough food to sustain us." Khava added in a gentle voice. "The rest of the time, we compete with other tribes over hunting grounds...when borders can't be agreed on."

"Y-you don't look like a Dark Elf. W-why do you say 'we'?" Mare asked shyly.

"Now who's being rude?" Aura said sarcastically to Mare, who blushed lightly.

"S-sorry." He said.

Khava tittered a little, "It's OK, I'm not one. I came from the Elf Kingdom in the south, I was born in Crescent Lake, was made part of the army, was captured by the Slane Theocracy, was sold into slavery in Kami Miyako, killed my master, and escaped, then I came here and married my husband," she touched Chindai's arm fondly, "Now these are my people, and this is my home. That is why I say 'we'." She replied.

"So, you're happy my master is fighting the Slane Theocracy then?" Aura asked confidently.

"Very." Khava said with a snarl. "But can he win?" She asked, "Those humans are very strong, they may be the strongest of the human nations." Her voice was somewhat hesitant about the question, but in answer, Aura laughed.

"Of course, he's beaten them easily several times already. Ikari is fallen, Fortress Alaf has fallen, the Forlorn Fortress has fallen, and just recently one of our human generals defeated an army of almost eighty thousand Theocracy soldiers and she's marching on Crossroad City right now. My master can't lose, he's the best!" She said with absolute confidence.

This brought another smattering of dumbfounded looks.

"Anyway, back to things, my master is going to destroy part of the mountains of the Understone Empire, move his army this way, and we want you to either be out of our way or on our side. If you're against us, well..." Aura shrugged and shook her head, "You can't say you weren't warned."

"Even if I accept all that," Chindai said, "it doesn't change the fact that I can't decide anything for any other tribe, you'd have to talk to all of them, and we're all in conflict right now." He said with some annoyance in his voice.

"L-like war?" Mare asked.

"Yes." Khava said in a voice of steel. "That one there," she pointed to the corpse, "was an assassin come to kill my husband and possibly myself, he's from another tribe, they see my husband as a threat."

"Why?" Aura asked dubiously as she looked around, thoroughly unimpressed with everything she saw.

"I began to establish new settlements for our people, we received some seeds from a merchant in the west that we were able to grow on these plains, so we've begun to harvest more, and stay longer. This leaves less land for Nosrogon, his tribe, and other tribes like his, to follow the herds. So now they've started to strike at our settlements, and this..." He kicked the corpse, "is just the first of what will no doubt be a lot of attempts on my life." Chindai explained.

"Oh, so... why doncha just conquer them?" Aura asked.

"Well, it isn't as easy as all that, the Slane Theocracy has agents scattered among some tribes, they provide weapons, advice, and supplies to whoever promises to use them against another more powerful tribe." Chindai's voice was frustrated as he explained the situation to the two young dark elf twins.

"Oh, so... lemme see if I got this." Aura said. "You're stronger and more settled, but not so strong you can fight everybody else, and every time somebody gets strong like that, the Slane Theocracy sends stuff to help the smaller tribes take down the bigger tribes, so nobody ever gets much stronger. This kinda keeps you stagnant doesn't it?" She asked.

"You're exactly right." Khava said in a voice that was every bit as frustrated as that of her husband.

"Well, how about this," Aura said, "We'll help you take over all the other tribes, on the condition that after we're done, you join Lord Ainz. That's fair, isn't it?" Aura asked casually.

"What do you mean, 'join' him? We're not strong enough, even all together, to fight the Slane Theocracy." Chindai said.

"Well, how about if the Understone Empire and the Re-Estize Kingdom was with you, I bet a good two hundred thousand or so would change the odds of you winning, wouldn't it?" She asked with a predatory grin, a grin matched by much of the rest of the tribe, including Chindai and his wife.

"What other terms did you have in mind?" Chindai asked, "We value our freedom highly, we wouldn't trade it away for a song, or at all for that matter."

Aura pretended to think for a moment, giving them time to imagine conditions of their own, "Well, slavery is prohibited, you might have figured that out already, huh?" She asked.

"I am aware, and I am not unhappy about that." Khava said with a satisfied expression. "Our tribe has not dealt in the practice for some time, though others do, or did before it became almost impossible for them to acquire new slaves to sell to the Understone Empire."

"They won't be using slaves for much longer either, not after our master is through with them." Aura said confidently. "But anyway, other than that, your taxes go to the Sorcerer King, you accept open trade, your armies are his to call on, but in return you get the security of an absolute power to protect you, and you won't be surrounded by enemies anymore, plus he always lends his experts and knowledge to help people grow and live better lives. He's just... he's the best." Aura said proudly.

"Those all sound like marvelous terms, and I don't want to call you liars..." Chindai said, before Aura interrupted saying...

"Good instinct."

"...but we've had bargains made and broken in bad faith before, can you prove you can deliver on your promises?" He asked, choosing to overlook Aura's implied threat.

"How?" Aura asked suspiciously.

Chindai thought the matter over, scratching his head as he struggled to come up with an idea. He looked over at his wife, silently asking for an idea.

"Well, you could fight some of our strongest warriors and prove you're as strong as you say." Khava suggested pragmatically.

"My love, they're still just chi-" He began to retort.

"OK, easy." Aura said with a smile, "To the death, or do I let them live, I mean it's up to you, I'm fine either way."

Chindai's mouth closed abruptly.

"Will it just be you, or will it be your entire tribe, or someone else, like I said, I don't care?" Aura asked.

**AN: Boom. All new story, and its uploaded in full, accounting for Aura and Mare's time among the dark elves. This takes place concurrently with 'Under the Stone Sky' and Chapter 85 of 'God Rising'. If you don't see the other chapters, wait a few minutes, its just FFN being slow. Thank you to my beta readers for all their work.**

**Also...keep this in mind...I'm uploading twelve chapters for this Dark Plains, one for Bone Daddy's Daughters, one for God Rising, one for the Synod, one for Memory & a Message, so you're getting sixteen chapters at once. It took me about four days. Now I'm not going to claim every word I write is gold, some stories are better than others, I consider my work to be passable. But the important thing I'm getting at is I PRODUCE. And YOU can do the same. I believe everybody has a story to tell, so tell yours. Don't wait, don't put it off because you haven't finished X, Y, or Z. Don't worry about how large the project is, don't worry about the first chapter or even the first page. Sit down and write that first sentence. I promise you you won't regret it, don't worry if you think it's crap (EVERYTHING starts off as crap) Refining it afterwards is part of the pleasure. Pick up the pen...er...keyboard. Open up that document, and get that first word OUT. You CAN write, you CAN create, all you need to do is stop saying you'll do it some other time, and do it NOW. :)**


	2. The Test

_...Dark Elf Territory…Golden Arrow Tribe..._

"Are you serious?" Chindai asked, befuddled and a little insulted that two mere children could contemplate taking on his entire tribe. "You think you can take on all of us, just you two?" He asked.

"Oh, no." Aura said casually.

"Well of course n-" he began, only to be interrupted.

"I mean just me, or just my brother, we're not nearly as powerful as Lord Ainz but…" She dropped her arms from behind her head, and opened her hands out at her side at shoulder level while shaking her head. "Well, for either of us, there isn't anything here that is a threat. Not trying to be mean or anything, that's just how things are when you're the creation of a Supreme Being." She said.

"We'll have to test that." Chindai said, now irked in the extreme.

"Husband." Khava said reprovingly.

"I know, my love, not to the death." He said with a crooked smile.

"OK, what are your rules and who do you want to fight with you and which one of us, or do you want us both at once?" Aura asked, seeming already to be a little bored.

"I will take my fifty best against your brother." Chindai said confidently.

"Fine." Aura said. "Where?"

"Just outside the walls." The Chief replied.

"You heard the dark elf, Mare, get to it." Aura said.

"O-okay, sister." He said and scampered off to just beyond the walls.

"OK, pick your fifty." Aura said with a smirk.

A few minutes later Chindai led fifty dark elves out of the gate and twenty yards beyond where Mare stood.

"My wife will give the signal." Chindai said. Mare nodded.

She walked slowly, with determination in every step, having a deep foreboding sense that something was wrong with what was happening, but unable to say just what it was. She climbed the steps to the top of the low wall and looked out over the field, hundreds of tribal members were already crowding the walls to watch what was going to happen next.

She felt her heart race.

That didn't stop her.

"Begin!" She called out and locked her eyes on the form of her husband, Chindai moved at the front, he led the way as he always did, he had the glorious form of a champion in his prime, his face was beautiful and terrible at once, the trials of years of command had given him ferocity and decisiveness, victory had given him reputation and striving for victory had given him the skills to achieve it. She was proud, so very proud, to be his wife and to be the only one to hold his heart against her own.

So why did it ache like he had poked some terrifying monster that he should not have come close to?

Behind him fifty warriors, the strongest and fastest men and women, the veterans of many battles, they were the hardest of the hard, the strongest of the strong.

They were charging at one little elf boy in a skirt, it seemed so mad, so absurd, but if he cared or felt any true fear, Khava could not see it, instead he simply approached with a few small steps, and then…

She looked around, he was gone, vanished in an eye blink, then she saw it. Her people, a group of over a dozen full grown warriors, were sent flying through the air, it was every one of the people who had been in reach of the little cross dressing boy's staff, he'd stopped just to swing it once, then even as they were trying to react, he was gone again.

She didn't see him again until he'd stopped, this time with a kick that sent one warrior flying backwards with such force that he bowled over most of the line, he bounced off the ground and went tumbling end over end for another two dozen yards.

The boy was gone again as if he'd never been there, she caught him only in glimpses, he would pause, punch or kick someone, and be gone again to repeat the task, finally there was only her husband, only Chindai, and the little dark elf boy grabbed him by the throat and left the broken unconscious forms of the tribe in the dust.

Chindai was trying to fight, screaming, or trying to do so, clawing, and failing. The nervous looking boy seemed to feel nothing and as he drew closer, she saw what she'd feared, his nervous, sweet expression.

It was a mask, it was like a perfect, flawless, beautiful mask, it hadn't changed even once in all that time. He hadn't looked angry, or excited, or bored, it was like this child of royalty who seemed so frail and nervous, was just a body that existed for monstrous power, and his 'parent' or 'creator' had simply decided this is what he should look like.

Mare came back to the wall, went straight towards the entrance, "C'mon, c'mon,' he could be heard to say, "I need to finish all this so we can get started, there is lots of important work to do." Mare said casually, oblivious to Chindai's pain and struggles, and never losing that nervous child like face.

Khava's blood ran colder than Aura's killing intent.

Mare dropped the invincible chief at her feet right at the gate entrance.

Aura went up and patted her brother on the shoulder. "Good job, Mare." Aura said, all smiles.

She looked up where Khava stood watching. "Good enough?" She asked the southern elf.

Khava could do nothing but nod her head.

Chindai had his hand over his throat, he rolled to his side and coughed and hacked, his everything hurt. He forced himself up with one arm and looked at the two children with abject awe.

"You say your master is more powerful?" He asked.

"Yes, he's one of the Supreme Beings." Aura said proudly.

"Did he create you?" Chindai asked.

"No." Aura said, and Chindai felt a moment of relief that such power did not exist in this world.

"He created a different one of our number, the one who created Mare and I was one of his subordinates." Aura said.

The abyss opened up beneath Chindai as he imagined what kind of power such beings must have.

"You are a mighty warrior." He said proudly.

"Ah, I-I'm not a warrior." Mare said.

Chindai was stunned.

"I'm, I use magic." Mare said.

"But- no- you… how… why didn't you use it?" He gasped.

"It wasn't to the death. If I had used magic, you would all have died." Mare explained.

He did not fall into the abyss, he stared into it, and it stared back at him. This was too much, Chindai looked past the two children out on to the wide open plains, he had loved these lands from his first remembered step on them. They were vast, dangerous, and beautiful, but all at once he was reminded that even those vast open wilds were as nothing, nothing compared to the sheer scale and scope of the world at large, and now a mighty power had turned its eyes to his home and was offering him much.

"So, what do you say? Are you ready to be lord of all the tribes of the plains between the mountain and the Theocracy?" Aura asked.

Chindai got up, but did not stand, he went to one knee. "Help me free the plains of the Theocracy scourge, help us unite, give us prosperity and a future, and we will be there for your fight with the Theocracy, and be forever yours thereafter." Chindai said.

Aura and Mare traded a look. "That'll do it." Aura said when Mare nodded in agreement.

"Let's go conquer some tribes." Aura grinned, "But first, we should probably get everybody healed up, huh?" She said with a grin.

A few hours later when everyone was restored, Aura and Mare were in the private quarters of Chindai and his wife. "So, who're the tribes closest to you and who is weakest?" She asked.

"Don't you mean 'strongest'?" Chindai asked.

"Nope. See only someone dumb fights the strongest one before they're ready, you have to do better than that, first we strike the weakest and bring them into your tribe." Aura said with her hands folded behind her back. "So, who is the weakest?" She asked.

"These." Khava said and pointed to a place on the map. "They are the White Arrows, and though they have one thousand members of their tribe, they have no more than five hundred fighters, we have several times that."

"OK, how close are they?" Aura asked.

"Not that close normally, but now they're going to be half a day's ride away, very close." Chindai said calmly. "They ride this way," he traced his finger over a map. "They go to a water supply not far."

"Why?" Aura asked.

"It is necessary, they don't have enough water where they are now and must leave for better lands until the water of their present home is replenished by the rains or snows." Chindai explained.

"So we wait for them." Aura said.

"But they're very dangerous fighter's up c…" Chindai trailed off as he looked at Mare. "Never mind." He said.

"Still, do you want us to massacre them?" Khava asked.

"If they surrender, no, if they don't, they become an example. There is only one chance to surrender." Aura said bluntly.

It chilled them to the bone to hear a child speak in such a manner.

"OK, get your warriors, we're going now." Aura said.

"How many?" He asked.

"All. There are two examples being made when they arrive." She said sweetly, but with a smile that was anything but sweet.

"What of our tribe, should we not leave some of our fighters here to protect them?" Chindai asked dubiously.

"No, you can bring them too if you're worried. Probably for the best anyway. You do that right, travel together?" She asked.

"Yes… when we migrate but…" He began.

"Great, that settles it, get started." Aura said.

Chindai and Khava shared a look, then silently parted ways to go and see to the movement of the tribe.

_...White Arrow Encampment…_

Bagan was having a bad day. Movement had been slow in the morning and everybody was sluggish. He could live with that in bad weather, but the rest of the time it sometimes felt as if there was a conspiracy among his people to annoy him.

He went to the tent he shared with his wives. They were still wrapped up in the furs. That was annoying in particular, they should have been up with him at the least. He sighed and grabbed a water skin, he took a swig, it was good, it was also cold, and they found out how cold it was when he held it over their heads and tilted it upside down.

They shrieked and sputtered and shook their heads in shock at the sudden strike of freezing water at their skin.

"Wake up." Bagan snapped. "You two should have been the first ones ready, not the last.

They grumbled, but did as he said, there was no sleeping now, they wiped their faces and their hair clean of water and got dressed. Bagan swaggered over to his horse and took his seat in the saddle. He took a horn from off the side of the mount, put it to his lips, and blew, if that didn't wake up his tribe, they were all dead. He snickered a bit, it was petty, even he knew that, but when they didn't perform as expected, well they could live with some annoyance.

He sighed, he was broad shouldered for a dark elf, and tall compared to the average, but other than that, he was in many ways perfectly ordinary, and he was smart enough to know that this was not the best job for him, but he was also too stubborn to concede it to someone else.

His tribe had finally started moving in earnest, some were going to the wagons, others to the horses, this afternoon they'd pass through Golden Arrow territory, he intended to go through whether they liked it or not, if Chindai didn't like it, let him come out and say so.

It was a long slow ride, even though there wasn't a single member of the tribe who wasn't either on horseback or who wasn't in a wagon at the least. It was still slow and Bagan hated slow. But it was still better to conserve the mounts for when sudden intense action was needed, and that much he understood, so he tolerated it.

There was no contact with the Golden Arrow tribe, a scout showed their settled homes to be abandoned, Bagan was riding with his wives when that happened.

"Any sign of violence?" Chushee asked, she was a curious one, inquisitive. Bagan didn't much care for her, but she was the daughter of the last chief so she was tolerable, and she moved like a thoroughbred mare.

"Anything worth taking?" Neela asked. That wife, Bagan liked, a born plunderer down to her core.

The answer to both questions was a disappointing no.

"They probably came to their senses and moved on, and that stupid idea of his about settling long term, well hopefully he's given up on that." Bagan said contemptuously.

Where they'd gone was quickly made evident when they came close to the water source and found Chindai's banner up in front of it.

In front of the banner came a white flag of peace. Bagan had one raised in front of his own banner, and he rode up with his wives.

Chindai rode up with Khava and two dark elf children, much to Bagan's surprise.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bagan asked with contempt.

"Better question, how did you get here? Have you been violating my territory again?" Chindai asked.

"What if I have?" He asked with a sneer.

"Lady Aura." Chindai said with a glance.

The dark elf stepped forward and Bagan was immediately transfixed. "Is he a tribute to me, some kind of a joke? What do I want with a young boy?" He asked with a snort, "And why do you call him 'lady' anyway? Give me that one over there," he pointed to Mare, "then we might have something to talk about."

"I'm. A. GIRL." Aura snapped. "That over there is my brother. And I was going to give you a chance to surrender, and I suppose I still have to, but please... don't take it, I want to kill you!" She snarled, Bagan's attitude had utterly incensed her.

"S-sister, y-you have to offer terms! It's the rule!" Mare said emphatically.

Aura calmed down, "OK, this is the deal, dimwit. You surrender your tribe and become Chief Chindai's subordinate, and your tribe gets to exist. Just not as its own tribe anymore. You don't do that, anyone still on their feet a minute after we get started, is considered a combatant and dies. You understand that or do I need to draw you a picture?" Aura asked furiously.

Bagan's day was still very bad, his wives laughed. "Shut up." He said first to Chushee, then to Neela, and finally… he looked down at Aura and snapped, "And you shut up too child or I'll have to spank you and teach you some manners."

"Go back to your line. Lower your flag of truce. Do it now so I can kill you." Aura said with a voice of ice.

"Sure neither of these are tributes?" Bagan asked of Chindai with a rude laugh.

Aura looked at Bagan's horse. "Throw him." She said, a moment later the mount was bucking wildly, and a moment after that he went flying with limbs akimbo and he landed face first in the dirt and his horse ran off. His day was getting worse by the minute.

Bagan got up to all fours and spat dirt. "I'll make you pay for that." He said angrily. "Come on!" he said to his wives, who were barely containing their laughter.

The flag came down from both sides, Bagan didn't like the numbers difference, but if his forces could close, all he had to do was drive them off.

Curiously from a distance, he saw the dark elf child take out an unusual bow. She hadn't been wearing it a moment ago, but there it was. His wondering about what he was seeing immediately vanished when an arrow was launched that pierced through seven of his dark elf warriors in one blow. It passed through right at the chest, and all seven fell over, dead almost instantly.

"Charge!" He shouted as he grabbed another horse.

_...Golden Arrow line…_

"Well?" Chindai asked just before the arrow went out.

"When they die, do what you do best. Mare and I will see to the remainder." She said, he watched seven die, and with another arrow, seven more. The impossible arrow or impossible bow or impossible archer, or whatever was the root of this, seemed able to hit the most deeply packed position and kill all the way to the end of it.

Bagan's horses rode forward, but to his surprise, Chindai's warriors ranged outwards, away from the center, it left only the dark elf children at the center, the one with the dangerous bow had to die, he could sort out the rest later.

He screamed a war cry that he was sure would strike fear into their hearts.

Aura looked over at Mare. "Go ahead."

"O-Okay." He said, and a moment later Bagan felt his bones cave in at the chest, he felt the impact but couldn't see it. As if to cap the matter off, a moment later he saw enormous beasts charging out of nowhere and charging at his soldiers. He was actually grateful for the moment he'd lost consciousness.

_...Nazarick…_

When he awoke hours later it was on a stone floor, it took him several minutes to come back to his senses, and he forced himself up, or started to, when a voice commanded, "Prostrate yourself." His forehead smashed back into the stone. It hurt.

"Allow him to raise his head, Demiurge." He heard a voice say.

"Raise your head, behold the Supreme One." The one called 'Demiurge' said, and Bagan found himself face to face with a terrifying skeleton.

"I will be brief, dark elf chieftain. I learned what you said to my servants, and I am disgusted beyond words, as are my other servants who you see around us here." He gestured to the walls and beside him, where there stood an array of terrible and angry looking monsters.

"Tell me," Ainz paused before asking, "What would you have done if your words had come true, if by some impossible means, Chindai had given you one or both of them as a tribute?"

Bagan had enough sense not to answer truthfully, but not enough ability to tell a convincing lie.

"So you're that type. Demiurge?" Ainz asked.

"Yes, my lord?" He asked.

"You and Vanysa were wanting to do more with your head watching project were you not?" Ainz asked curiously.

"We were, my lord." Demiurge replied.

"Use him." Ainz said, gesturing to the silent Bagan.

"Oh, and in case you're wondering about your tribe?" Ainz said, and gestured to Sebas, who approached with the Mirror of Remote Viewing.

Bagan looked out of curiosity more than anything else, what he saw was the end for his people. There was not a warrior on a horse that belonged to the White Arrows. There were heads on spears being planted butt first into the earth in a macabre display and bodies being stacked like firewood. Not far away, though he couldn't hear them, he could see the lamentations of the women, children, and elderly of his people, and Chindai stood in front of them saying 'something' that couldn't be heard from where he knelt on the stone floor.

"Your tribe is being given an option, they integrate into the Golden Arrow tribe, or they commit suicide to remain with their traditional tribe to the end." Ainz said indifferently.

Bagan shook with rage as he saw his wives wipe the white arrow mark from their faces, it set the example for numerous others, and in the end only a handful of a handful chose to keep their identity in death.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Ainz asked.

Bagan spat on the floor. It was a mistake. "Lick it up." Demiurge said mockingly, and though he tried to fight the control that the figure had over him, Bagan found himself obeying perfectly.

"I am done with him, you may take him away Demiurge, and do as you see fit, for however long it suits you. Thankfully, Aura and Mare are still too young to understand the sorts of things he was saying or thinking, but still…" Ainz said angrily.

Demiurge bowed to the Sorcerer King, then walked down the stairs, grabbed Bagan by his hair at the base of his skull, "Come along, you have a lot of work to do for me." He said casually.

Privately Bagan reflected… 'This has been the worst day of my life.' Without knowing that after a long enough time had passed, he would remember it as the last good day he ever had… relatively speaking.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	3. Horses of the Everplains

_…Watering Hole: Massacre site..._

Removing a head is normally very hard to do, the spine being bone and all that, and everything all connected together, it required one of two things to do well. Either an inordinate amount of skill with a weapon that was very sharp… or… an absurd amount of strength. Aura gave the order to remove the heads quite casually, and Chindai was not about to argue with the royal child, so they set to work without quite knowing the point of the exercise.

Chindai as it happened, did indeed have the requisite skill to sever heads relatively easily, most of his tribe… well it was something of a hack affair, though dead bodies did not spurt blood, the hacking and sawing involved did make a royal mess.

The survivors of the White Arrow tribe watched as the dark elf twins casually did things very differently. Aura approached a dead man, kicked him over onto his back, reached down and grasped the head at the scalp and with her foot planted on the torso, she yanked up, popping the head off the body as easily as one might pull a grape off the stem, the flesh tearing free and the spine dangling around like a whip as she did so.

Mare was very different, the nervous looking little dark elf with the anxious expression used a staff like a club, and batted the head off with a single swing, tearing it free and sending it rolling away. It was a… cleaner method than that of Aura or the dark elves of the Golden Arrow tribe, but it was somehow the most horrifying. It took thought to realize just 'why' it was so horrific, and it was his face, he had such a sweet, beautiful, nervous face, like a child about to give his first love confession to someone, and it never changed, not once, as the heads rolled away.

The survivors watched the horror with mixed reactions, there were some who wailed, but most could only gape at the destruction of their warriors. When all the heads were removed, they watched in mute fascination as the heads were affixed to spears and the buts jammed into the earth like some twisted forest, hundreds and hundreds of them, and the 'children' of royal birth seemed to be treating it like a very ordinary activity.

Chindai felt his blood run cold, but as he saw the faces of the survivors of the White Arrow tribe, he began to see just what the twins were about, and his suspicion was confirmed when the last head was mounted and Aura approached the prisoners. She looked to Chindai and that was all it took, he approached and stood beside her.

"So, yer all alive, right?" Aura asked. Mute nods came her way.

"They're not, right?" She jabbed her thumb behind her at the forest of heads. Mute nods and gentle sobs were her answer.

"You got two choices then." Aura said to the defeated tribe. They were paying very close attention.

"You can join the Golden Arrow tribe, or you can join the forest back there." Aura said indifferently.

"What'll it be?" She asked.

A hand went up, and Aura looked over to Chindai, indicating that he should proceed.

"Yes?" Chindai asked, putting all the authority he could into his voice.

"Will we be slaves?" A young dark elf girl asked.

"No." Chindai answered, "When she says 'join us' she means it as it sounds. Our tribe has abandoned the practice, you will be our sisters, our brothers, sons, fathers, mothers, daughters. We will be one people, the folly of your former chief will not be held against you." He answered, as his wife came behind him, she wrapped an arm around his waist.

"I am Khava." She said, interjecting, "I am, as you can see, not a dark elf, I am from the south, yet I am married to the chief, if I can be of his people, so can you."

Another hand went up.

"Yes?" Chindai asked.

"Why… why did you do that to them?" A hushed voice asked, pointing to the forest.

"So that it needn't be done twice." Aura answered.

The answer left silent confusion in its wake. "You will understand when the next tribe joins you." She said to them, and looked over to Chindai.

"Who is the next weakest tribe and where are they?" She asked.

"The Black Club tribe, they can muster four thousand warriors." He said, troubled, "We have fought them before and though we won, it was always a narrow thing."

"OK, do you know where to find them now?" Aura asked, indifferent to the observing eyes of the captives.

"They are six hours ride from here with remounts." He said.

"No good." Aura said with a little frown. She removed a scroll from a pouch and went to a nearby dead horse, after she used the scroll, the horse got up, and she had herself an undead mount, she touched its nose gingerly and led it over to where Chindai, his blood coated tribe and awestruck prisoners waited. "You're going to take my brother there, get a representative, and bring them here, make sure it is a representative that can make decisions."

Chindai's suspicions were confirmed in that moment, and a smile broke out over his face. He looked to Khava, and kissed her lips softly. "I will be back in…" he looked to Aura, "How fast will that carry us?" He asked.

"You should be there in an hour or two, and back in about the same time, maybe sooner." She said after a moment's thought.

He went to the horse and got on, a moment later Mare got on behind him. He kicked against the horse's flanks and rode off at a full gallop. Chindai was a horseman through and through, dark elves, like their southern counterparts, were famed for their archery, yet most of all, what his people were proudest of was their 'mounted' archery, his tribe in particular could move with the synchronicity of a school of fish, as if they were a single organism. They could ride and loose and strike their targets and ride away. If there was anyone who could do better than they, he had never met them. The fact that the Slane Theocracy had never conquered the north as far as the mountains, preferring instead to use their wealth of resources to keep the tribes in ever shifting balance, was a testament to the dark elves and their skills.

This however, this was new, the undead horse did not tire, it did not sweat, its heart didn't burst from excessively hard riding, all he had to do was 'charge' the way he would the last twenty or thirty yards before striking a target, but not stop. As he rode with the strange and terrifying dark elf boy behind him, he contemplated just what his tribe, or all the dark elf armies together, could do with tireless mounts. The vision was so powerful that he practically fainted from the sheer joy of it.

It occupied his mind so thoroughly that he lost track of the time and soon found himself being approached by a dark elf of the Black Club tribe. The elf had a fierce look on his face at first, but when he realized that the rapidly approaching mount was undead, uncertainty, even fear, crept up and overtook his expression. Chindai slowed his mount to offer some comfort, a kind of reassurance that Chindai was not riding to fight him.

In response the rider slowed as well, from how he looked, Chindai guessed he was quite young, little over a century and a half at best. The living horse reared back and would not come closer to the undead mount, and Chindai saw yet further how this undead being, held en masse, could be exploited to military advantage. He raised his hand, keeping it open and free of a weapon. "Hold, I'm here in peace." He said as calmly as he could.

"What is that thing?!" The rider asked in horror.

"B-be nice. M-my sister made it for him!" Mare said, leaning over to one side to look at the rider.

The rider saw the heterochromatic eyes and immediately dismounted from his horse. He fell to one knee and looked deferentially to the ground below. "I apologize for my rudeness, I did not know."

"I-it's OK, b-but be nicer next time." Mare said anxiously.

"May I ask who you both are?" He asked, remaining on bended knee.

"I am Chindai, chief of the Golden Arrow tribe, this is Mare, of the Sorcerous Kingdom. We are here on a mission of diplomacy, take us to your chief immediately, the matter is of some importance." He said. Mare privately noted that though he lacked the impossible lordliness of his own master, Chindai's voice was still confident and authoritative, that of a man used to being obeyed.

"At once." The young warrior said, popping up to his feet, he remounted his horse and wheeled about. Reaching the camp wasn't hard, his tribe was year round migratory, and kept only a few scouts at range to watch for possible threats as they moved. With an escort of the Black Club, no others barred the way, and it was not until they came to the head of the column and the undead mount was recognized for what it was that consternation ensued.

The column was twenty horses wide, and when the undead horse approached, all twenty stopped in their tracks and tried to back away, this was especially problematic given that some of those horses were pulling wagons, the tribal migration was suddenly 'jammed up'. As a matter of courtesy, Chindai backed his horse up several paces and allowed the escort to move forward to explain the matter, and within a moment or two from the center of the column a dark elf that was seven and a half feet tall and carrying both a bow and a sword on his body rode up. He towered over Chindai easily, but that did not bother the chief of the Golden Arrow in the least, especially not with the impossible warrior child behind him.

"Chief Chindai." The Black Club chief said in greeting, he did not dismount his horse, their tribe lived in the saddle more than on the ground. He raised his hand with an open palm.

"Chief Subot." Chindai said, raising his open palm in return. Their voices were both cool to one another, but neither was overtly hostile.

"Who is that behind you?" Subot asked gruffly.

Mare poked his head out to one side again and stared at Subot with shining royal eyes. "I-I'm Mare, of the Sorcerous Kingdom." He said.

"I've heard of it." Subot said in a neutral voice. "But what are the two of you doing here?" He asked.

"T-to tell you y-you're going to join h-his tribe." Mare said softly.

Subot looked dumbfounded.

"What?" He asked.

"I-it's that o-or you die." Mare said anxiously. "M-my master says n-not to kill what w-we don't have to, s-so this is your chance."

Subot's expression was carefully kept neutral during all this, and he looked over to Chindai for confirmation. "I have a lot of questions, but I'm about to get very angry." He said, his killing intent began to exude from his body, and when it hit Mare, the dark elf child, contrary to his expectation, did not lose his expression or grow more frightened, the little thing looked like it should fall over in a stiff breeze. Chindai did not exude his own, contrary to expectation, he just looked at the dark elf royal child for a moment.

Then it was like the sun exploded in his face and ice gripped his veins and terror gripped his heart and death was swallowing his soul, nightmare and horror chilled him as the unchanged expression of the dark elf loomed like a mountain inches from his eyes as the little nervous thing unleashed a killing intent that made his own look like a leaf trembling in a gale force wind, blown away far from its tree to die distantly in the air.

Then it was gone, and Subot could barely breathe, he was sweating as if he had fought a hard battle, and in a manner of speaking, he had. Chindai looked at him with sympathetic eyes, the rest of the tribe was unaffected, they had only watched with great uncertainty as their chief, the powerful, indomitable Subot shook like a frightened child.

"There is something you need to see." Chindai said, "I will bring you and whatever representatives that you wish, but they must be able to, with you, make a decision that the rest of your tribe will accept without question when it is made."

Subot had to breathe for several more minutes before he could speak, and in the end, he killed his own words and nodded numbly. "I will need five with me for that." He said.

"Then you will need mounts like mine to carry them all, or a wagon I can pull, I leave that choice to your discretion." Chindai said.

"We live in the saddle, we have some elderly horses that are near death if those will do, if you can make… more like that." Subot said hesitantly.

Chindai looked at Mare. "Y-yes, I-I have my master's scrolls."

A few minutes later the tribe watched in fascinated horror as six horses of advanced age were quickly killed, then raised from death by what seemed to be an unknown dark elf royalty. Subot proved his worth as a brave chief when his advisors hesitated to mount the undead horses, and he approached fearlessly and drew himself into the saddle.

With his example set, the others followed suit, and followed after Chindai with a growing sense of awe and dread in their hearts, yet for all of both, their hair caught in the wind as the mounts raced over the plains, and more than one held out their hands in bliss at the feel of the air pounding hard against their strong, warrior breasts. For those who lived in the saddle, this was the highest of joys, to ride the open plains under the bright sky was to be a king over all within your reach, it was enough after a time to forget the dread look on Subot's face when he called for his representatives.

This ate up time like the horses ate up ground, and for all that joy in riding, when they saw the forest of heads on spear points, hundreds and hundreds, all the warriors of the White Arrow tribe, the blood spattered forms of the Golden Arrow tribe, a terrible realization began to hit home for them all.

Chindai slowed his mount, and they in turn slowed theirs, and he trotted them very slowly through the little forest of death that the two dark elf children had ordered to be created. Death was not uncommon on the plains, nor was war, many had lost loved ones to arrows, spears, swords, and magic. This though, this was war on another level. The pile of bodies, the dangling spines that swayed in the breeze, even the fierce Black Club tribe had never seen such a totality of victory that allowed a tribe to exterminate every single warrior. This was made even more shocking because they knew full well that the White Arrow tribe was, despite its small size, among the fiercest in close combat.

Aura approached on foot and stood in the middle of the little forest. "I'm guessing you're in charge?" She said, pointing at Subot.

He nodded numbly. "Like my forest?" She asked with a terrible smile.

"I have never seen anything like it." He said in a voice that was… impressed in a terrible sort of way.

"So, this is the deal, you join him." Aura pointed to Chindai. "You become one tribe, or I can add all your warrior's heads to this forest and make it grow. I'm fine with either outcome, but if it helps your decision, my master says not to kill more than we absolutely have to in order to get everything done." She shrugged her shoulders dismissively and kept her tone mild and sweet as she presented the choice.

Subot looked over to Chindai as he rode closer, and while Chindai never held a poor opinion of his rival or his courage, he nonetheless bumped it up another notch in his head, that the man could ride closer after what he experienced of the little one's killing intent earlier.

"What is this really about?" Subot asked, his advisors, though they lacked his courage and did not come closer, were already close enough to hear, so there in the forest of death, Chindai explained everything that had happened to the chief of the Black Club tribe. Everything, he left nothing out that he had heard, and as understanding dawned over his face, he looked back over his shoulder at his reticent advisors. They nodded in numb, mute horror and fascination that such a radical change could happen so quickly… at first.

But as Aura explained further, inserting almost trivially the intent to completely destroy the Slane Theocracy, the liberation of their southern cousins, the prosperity of those who were falling under the rule of the Sorcerer King, their mute horror was mixed with ambitious desire. The Slane Theocracy was despised by the dark elves, even by those who accepted their help. The fact that the agents of the Theocracy had always labored to keep the northern dark elves tribes weak and pitted against one another was not lost on anyone. Everybody knew it, but nobody could ever devise a way to ensure unity or prevent it from happening, the few who tried were overthrown by usurpers or assassinated, but now, here, before them was a chance to end that cycle forever.

The forest of horror underscored the transformative power of the pair of 'children' which still seemed impossible, yet they could not deny the reality in front of them. Finally the river of words halted, and Subot did the unthinkable for a chief who lived and ruled from the saddle, he got off his mount and approached Chindai, and held out the reins to his horse.

"My tribe is yours, my people are yours. Put me at your side, I will fight beside you, put me at your back, I will guard it, put me in front of you, I will be your shield. My tent will be next to yours as a brother, our rivalry will be over, and our unity will begin. Only treat my people as you have treated your own, and we will never falter." Subot said, his tone of voice was one of reverence, unblemished by the fear that Chindai was sure that he felt.

Chindai, under the watchful eye of his tribe, took the reins in hand with a reverence equal to Subots, though their tribes had often fought one another, each chief had displayed merit in the other's eyes for cleverness, courage, and good stewardship. "But for accident of birth that had us raised in opposite tribes, we would have always been as brothers," Chindai said, "now by this, it is made as it always should have been, we will ride the plains together, you will be among our elders, my advisors, my war leaders, where we ride, we ride together, where we fight, we win together, until the plains claim our bones."

Wild cheers came from the Golden Arrow tribe as a new victory was won, behind Subot, his advisors of the Black Club were visibly relaxing, and their ease was not lost on the servants of Ainz Ooal Gown. Aura let herself enjoy a satisfied smirk. The combination of abject terror and the offer of nearly absolute power… and the promise to destroy a long hated enemy, had all combined into a trifecta that had more than doubled the numbers at their disposal. The Black Club tribe was now firmly planted where they needed to be.

"Now for the next issue at hand." Aura said and approached the prisoners. "Have you made up your mind?" She asked. "Those willing to join the Golden Arrow, stand up, those not willing, just stay there." She said with a voice of quiet death.

Khava approached and stood just behind Aura. "Come with me, if you are with us." She said in a tender, sympathetic voice, and those who stood, walked out of the circle they had been confined to, and to the surprise of no one who had just seen everything that happened over the last few hours, there were no holdouts to add to the 'forest' that Aura and Mare had planted.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	4. Forest of Terror

After everything was said and done, and the representatives had rushed back to bring their tribe to join Chindai, they had a little free time. The first question of course, came from those who surrendered. "Could they properly bury their dead?"

It was not an unexpected question, but it was also one that Chindai wasn't sure of, he and his wife approached Aura and Mare on the matter. "They've given themselves over to us, they're our people now, and they want to bury their dead, do you have any objections?" He asked.

Aura thought it over a moment and looked over to Mare. He looked his usual anxious self, and offered no opinion.

"Tell me," she said, looking up at Chindai and Khava, "the next weakest tribe, will they respond effectively to a look at this forest, can we get one more surrender out of it?" She asked pragmatically.

Privately, Chindai suspected it was possible, a display like this was a level of blood thirst that was not normally found on the plains, between that and the power displayed by the twins, he thought it might work again. Yet as he looked at Khava, she gave a very tiny shake of her head.

He looked back down at Aura. "I'm sorry but no, probably not, even if it did, I think it might sow rebellion later, and I think I gather that your master likes things to be orderly. Am I wrong?" He asked.

It was the right thing to say. "N-no, the Sorcerer King likes things tranquil and or-orderly." Mare said.

"Yeah, he does." Aura said scratching her head and tapping her foot. "Too bad too. I suppose they should go ahead and dispose of them properly now… but I was really hoping to get at least one more out of this for all that work we just did, well, what else do you suggest, Chief Chindai?" She asked enthusiastically, dismissing the failure of the forest of heads to get another win.

"Well, the next nearest tribe are the Dead Eagles, they are, or 'were' as strong as we were, but now we're twice as strong." He said.

"Can you force them to join you, intimidate them into giving up without a fight?" She asked.

Chindai thought it over, "Is it important that as many stay alive as possible?" He asked.

"Well," Aura said, "we were told not to be more cruel than we had to be, and Lord Ainz knows best, so… I guess you could say that is important, but if anyone has to die, well then they have to, why do you ask?" She inquired.

"Well, they're a greedy tribe, they were the most successful slave traders on the plains, around six out of every ten, by my guess at least, of the slaves that walked into the Understone Empire, was handed over by somebody in the Dead Eagle tribe." Chindai explained.

"Yeah? So?" Aura said.

"So the slave trade has suffered hard since the Abelion Hills came under your master, they weren't willing to fight the Slane Theocracy to supply themselves, that means that they haven't fed their greed to the heights of their desire. Show them that the tribes can unite and defeat the Slane Theocracy, show them a way that doing so will gain them wealth, and they will join us." Chindai said.

"Fine, but what about later? You said yourself, our lord likes order, it'd be a pain if they tried to back out later after they got what they wanted." Aura said, annoyance evident in her voice.

"Well, what if they can't back out without impoverishing themselves?" Khava asked.

"You mean like take back the money they're paid to fight for? That would be cheating, Lord Ainz doesn't allow us to sully the good name of Nazarick with something so petty." Aura said proudly.

"No." Khava said with a smile. "If the tribes are united, but trade will not flow to any dissident tribe, then leaving would become impossible for them."

"The problem is, how do we show them the wealth that is within reach?" Chindai asked. "My tribe is not wealthy, we are not poor, but we are not wealthy either."

"Oh, we can take care of that." Aura said with a very wide grin. "That is easy, I just have to show them the treasury of Nazarick and offer to let them work for us."

"Is your wealth so great as that?" Chindai asked.

"You come too, see for yourself." Aura said with a playful smile that reminded him very much of a cat pawing at a wounded mouse.

"Then why don't we ride for them now, Khava can see to everything here until we get back." Chindai said calmly.

Khava rolled her eyes, "Fine, husband, go galavanting off and leave me to deal with the mess that will be rolling towards me soon."

"I knew you'd understand." He said with a sarcastic smile, drawing a disgruntled 'harumph' with crossed arms and an upturned nose from her.

He laughed and grabbed an undead mount. "Follow me." He said, and kicked the horse into a dead run as if racing against the wind itself.

As Aura and Mare rode next to Chindai on undead horses, they could not help but notice that their companion seemed utterly obsessive over his own undead horse, he laughed and stroked the undead as if he were a child with a new puppy. He was, in two words, supremely happy. It wasn't until two hours later that they paused in their dead sprint on the horses so that he could break to prepare a meal and relieve himself that they chose to indulge their curiosity on his shift in behavior.

"H-how come y-you're so happy? N-not to be rude b-but I wasn't expecting this?" Mare asked anxiously.

Chindai laughed as he tilted his water skin back and drank the cold water he brought with him. "It is simple, this is like being on the Everplain."

"The what?" Aura asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forget that you didn't grow up on the plains like other Dark Elves." He wiped his mouth and as he put away the water skin, he explained. "We who live on these harsh and beautiful plains have a story, that after we die, if we die well and bravely for our chiefs or our families, that our spirits fly to a place we call the Everplain, where the gods provide us with heavenly horses. Horses that never tire, on which we may ride forever. Happiness for us is falcons on our wrists, victory behind us, the wind in our hair, a good horse beneath us, and the open field to ride forever. We are not the people of the cities in the north or the south, either under the mountain or outside of it. We are the riders and masters of the plains. So riding this… wonderful beast, this heavenly horse that never tires, eats, drinks, fears, which follows every command without any flaw… from where I sit, you truly are the servants of a god. If it were possible to give these to every dark elf of the plain, I have no doubt that the entire region would come over to you just for that alone, just to experience the Everplain in life."

He saw the skeptical expressions on their faces as he took out a hunk of bread and tore off a bite of it, as he chewed, he said, "Fine. Don't believe me, but that is indeed what I am most happy with. Any Dark Elf worth his saddle would trade rule over a tribe for a horse like this." He clapped the undead mount firmly atop its rump as he got back into the saddle.

"Even the Dead Eagle tribe would trade everything for a supply of these, it is a shame there are so few of them." Chindai said with a reluctant sigh.

"Huh?" Aura asked. "Who told you that?"

"There are more?" Chindai asked in shock, "I thought these must surely be impossibly rare. I've lived the plains my entire life, if our magic casters were capable of producing even one, I am absolutely sure they would have. So I thought this was some rare thing of legend that you were able to make only a few of for purposes of your mission for your master."

Aura laughed so hard she had to catch her chest, she threw her feet forward and rocked back and forth on the saddle as the laughs poured out like water over the falls, while Mare smiled nervously and shook her head.

"N-no, our master is a god. L-like we said, s-so this is easy for him." Mare said in his usual small voice.

Chindai could only stare. "Truly? You are not lying to me? You're not trying to trick me?" He asked.

It was only the awed, reverential expression that kept Aura from being angry, she saw that he was simply finding it impossible to believe, so when her laughter stopped she said, "No, not even a little bit, my brother is telling you the truth. This is so easy for my master that he could supply a herd of these large enough for every Dark Elf tribe on the plains to use nothing else. All he needs is time and a dead horse to make it from."

"He truly is a god…" Chindai said, "He must be master of the Everplain."

"Well, most just call him the god of death, course some call him the god of justice, others say god of war, others god of cooking… for some reason… and others say god of trade, to me, he's just 'god' cept the god of jokes… people never call him that though…" Aura trailed off as she pondered the last point while scratching her head.

"Doesn't matter." She said as she came back to reality, "Important thing here is that we get moving, I want those Dead Birds…"

"Dead Eagle." Chindai corrected her.

"Dead Eagle. Whatever." She said with a dismissive shrug, "I want those brought under your authority today, if wealth and undead horses are all it takes, fine." She said bluntly.

They spurred their horses back into a sprint, tearing up ground as the powerful hooves dug in and propelled them forward. Chindai howled his happiness into the air, he was like a child in his joy, and it was at least a little infectious, to Aura and Mare this was just 'work'. Honorable work that served the supreme one, but just another task, but Chindai's passion for what was happening was true happiness, and in spite of herself, they envied him for that, just a little.

It took three hours of sprinting the horses at their greatest speed to reach the Dead Eagle encampment, and when they did, they found the tribe was feasting after a very successful hunt, fires cast smoke so high into the sky and in such thickness that they saw the evidence of the encampment miles away, well before they found the source itself. The great wagons of the most mercantile of the Dark Elf tribes, reflected their wealth. The coverings over their wagons were linen, not simple roughspun cloth that most used, their horses were all of the finest lineages with great broad fronts that spoke of great strength, and though Aura and Mare could see that they wore leather like most of the others, this was clearly the most finely made they'd seen, with bright colors, decorations, and of refined manufacture. Most likely acquired from a settled place than made on the move.

Approaching the large camp was easy enough, on the open plains save for a few locations, ambushes were relatively rare, and most walked or rode openly where they wanted to go. As the trio approached, they slowed their horses to a walk to let themselves be seen. Chindai held out his hands wide beside his body, his hands were open, and it appeared as if he was coming to embrace them.

Of course they recognized it for what it was, he was showing that he bore no weapon in hand to use against them. There was no doubt that he had weapons with him, but a weapon was never in hand unless it was to be used, nor was it ever far away, so that it could be used if needed. However, the fact that he rode alone except for two children, set those who saw him, at their ease, and he was allowed to approach unchallenged.

As they did so, the heterochromatic eyes of Aura and Mare drew immediate expressions of awe and consternation, but seconds after that, it was the horses the three rode. Undead mounts had never been seen before on the plains, and their own horses were clearly dreading the approach of the ones the trio rode, further adding to the sense of divine or royal status they already had.

"Bring out your chief. We need to speak with him!" Chindai said, his voice bold, loud, and proud as he looked down at those around him from his horse. The beads that the base of his hair secured would sport three more to mark his triumphs by the setting of the Sun, of that much he was sure.

A woman came out, slender like Khava, but tan of skin like his own, with long dark hair that she wore bound as all did, but cast forward in front of her, falling between her ample breasts. At the base he noted the four beads that marked her as having four great triumphs. Her dark eyes met his own, she was, in a word, beautiful.

"I am Rayla, chief of the Dead Eagles, who are you that you come to my tribe and call for me?" She asked, and then her eyes fell to the two dark elf children, and to the impossible mounts beneath them all.

"What is this?" She asked, her lilting musical voice carried confusion, awe, defensiveness, a bewildering array of emotions, but before she could say further, Chindai dismounted and stepped forward with his arms wide and palms open.

"This is change, chief Rayla, the sign of changes to come. I am Chindai of the Golden Arrow tribe, and I bring to you the heralds of change." His voice had the pride and confidence of a nine bead chief, a man of many victories and bold action, his muscles were tense and strong, and though she had seen larger men among other Dark Elves, she'd never seen one who seemed so absolutely sure of himself, as if he knew he could not lose. But handsome as he was, his answer had truly answered nothing.

"I welcome you in peace to the camp of the Dead Eagles, but I have no idea what you mean." She said, pushing for further explanation.

"Yeah, I can help with that." Aura said with a big wide grin as she got down from her horse, Mare followed after, and they came up to the pair. "I'm Aura, this is my brother, Mare. We're envoys from the Sorcerer King, the ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom, the one currently at war with your neighbors, the Slane Theocracy."

That drew hushed whispers and gossip began to flow as the other tribesmen and women began to gather and heard what she had to say.

"So the thing is, my master is going to take off part of the mountain of the Understone Empire soon, and he's going to march an army that way to come down and deal with the Slane Theocracy. So like I told Chindai here, you got a few choices, you can stay out of our way, you can join us, or… well there really is no 'or' in a few days my master will have the Understone Empire as his subordinates, he's already got the Abelion Hills, and he's crushing the Slane Theocracy. Do you know where that puts the Dark Elves of the plains?" Aura asked.

"Surrounded." Rayla and Chindai said in unison. She looked at him in surprise as he acknowledged their situation.

"Yup. But, the good news is, my master said to harm as few of you as possible along the way, so after talkin with Chindai here, it seemed like a better idea to unite the tribes into one nation, that way you'll all do the same thing, and when our mountain breaker, Gargantua, marches through here, and the army comes behind him, you won't pose any inconveniences for us." Aura explained casually.

Rayla blinked, it was all she could do, she looked back up at Chindai for confirmation. She saw in his eyes the confirmation of what the little dark elf child said.

He chose to elaborate, "When they came to the Golden Arrow tribe, that one," he pointed to Mare, "Defeated myself and fifty of my best, and he did it with no effort to speak of. These impossible horses behind me… we rode here from the great water source over one hundred and fifty miles away, and we did it in three fingers of the Sun."

"Ah… what's 'three fingers of the Sun?" Mare asked curiously.

"It's how much time it takes for the Sun to move." Rayla said, glad for some kind of distraction. "We hold a finger up level to ourselves, each finger takes the same amount of time to traverse, or close enough anyway. So when we do the same thing later, however many more fingers it has passed over, is how many fingers we reference for time, three fingers is about three hours time. Don't you know this?" She asked.

Then her mouth snapped closed. "Did you say three fingers from the great water source to here?!" She shouted in disbelief.

"Yes." He said. "These horses are undead, they sprint at full speed without stopping, they need no water, no food, no rest, and they are vastly stronger than other horses." Chindai explained.

"Were they plucked from the Everplain itself…?" She asked in awe. The talk from her tribe had picked up in volume as people heard the exchange.

"No, apparently their master can just 'make' these in whatever number he wants, for whoever he wants, with trivial ease." Chindai said with a voice that sounded like someone who was already resigned to being surprised all the time.

She looked at him with narrow eyed suspicion. "What happened to the other tribes near you when you approached them about this?" She asked.

"The White Arrow tribe chose to make a fight of it. They lost." Chindai said, "Those who survived have chosen to join my tribe. The Black Club tribe was more sensible, when they saw the work of these two, and bore witness to the power of these avatars of the Everplains," he gestured to the horses behind him, "they chose to join us willingly."

"So now it is the turn of the Dead Eagles." Rayla said ominously before asking, "What terms?"

"Slavery is absolutely outlawed, trade is opened, taxes paid to the Sorcerer King, there are some other details about how laws are set, but his rule is apparently prosperous. You are the mercantile tribe of the plains, you deal most with the Dark Dwarves of the Understone Empire, and with the merchants of the Slane Theocracy, surely you've heard something?" Chindai asked.

"I have, but I hear very different things. What is true, what is not, I do not know, it all sounds impossible no matter who I hear from." She said unhappily.

"Why not see for yourself?" Aura asked.

"How do I do that?" Rayla asked suspiciously.

A moment later, she almost fell backwards when a whorling black hole opened up in front of her. "Right this way." Aura said, and stepped through with a smile.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	5. Their Place in the World

_...Dead Eagles Tribal Camp…_

Chindai looked at Rayla, as chiefs they shared a common bond, that place in life where those they loved and those they did not love, were both held in similar status. That they must have a care for every life, whether old or young, great or small, weak or strong. On their shoulders rested the fate of many lives, and it was a burden that had to be carried until life fled the body.

So when Chindai arrived bearing with him two royal children of unknown origin who spoke the name of a king of which much was said but little known, speaking words of change and unity among the tribes, promising that impossible things were to pass in mere days ahead, it was only by dint of her respect for him by station and reputation that she did not dismiss these things. That… and their impossible horses.

Yet now she was confronted with something new, again. A hole had opened up in the world before her, a black whorling void into which a child stepped without fear. "C-come on, we've g-got to get going, okay? H-Here, t-take these and put them on, f-for your safety." The one called 'Mare' said anxiously as he handed them each a ring and stepped through the gate with a hurried little scurry that was really… quite adorable were everything not so otherworldly.

She looked back at him, he looked at her with something akin to a respectful kind of pity, as if to say, "I know, I really do." and then he stepped through the portal as well. Her tribe was watching her, she had a long standing reputation for courage and sagacity, but even the bravest can be frightened by sudden terrors and great unknowns that defied what they knew of the world.

She took a deep breath, she hesitated, Chindai came back through, his eyes were wide as if he had seen the Everplains spread out before him. "Come, you have to see this." He said, and returned.

Rayla looked around her at her tribe, "If I do not return by sunset tomorrow, assume I am not returning, and select another to rule in my stead." She said, and with her eyes closed, a deep breath, and much trepidation, she stepped through the portal in front of her.

She opened her eyes and looked around. It was a truly massive room, the walls were smoother than she imagined they could ever be, she in various perfect alcoves, great sculptures that could only have been made by a god, showed the visages of terrifying, yet compelling beings. The pair looked around with a kind of sacred reverence for the sheer artistry of it all.

"This way. Make sure you have your rings on, they grant poison immunity, at least for a little while." She said, and they put on the rings as fast as they could before Aura opened the enormous double doors and they saw inside.

It was as if all the world's wealth was gathered together in one place. Coins, piled high up to the ceiling itself, weapons of incalculable worth, armor that only a divine smith could have forged, jewelry that no mortal anywhere in the world could be fit to wear. She felt her legs growing weak, Chindai grabbed her shoulder to steady her.

"This is the treasury." Aura said, "Most of the time, nobody comes here but that guy." She said, gesturing to the odd looking figure with no notable face, just three holes. His clothing was strange but tremendously expensive looking.

"Guten tag meine frau und mein herr!" He said and rendered a dramatic salute, clicking his heels smartly together. "Willkommen in meinem…" Aura sighed loudly to interrupt him.

"You know Lord Ainz told you to knock that off." Aura said in exasperation.

It seemed to knock the wind out of his sails. "Ahem, well yes, welcome to the treasury anyway." He said as he was thrown off kilter.

"Chindai tells me your tribe is impressed by wealth, is this wealth enough?" Aura asked.

Rayla nodded mutely, her eyes as big as saucers, her ears twitched at the sound of coins clinking as they crashed into one another.

"Just to be clear, don't touch a thing unless it is given to you." Aura said, "He may be a weirdo," she gestured to Pandora's Actor, "but he will absolutely crush you if you try to steal from his charge."

"I… I won't." Rayla said breathlessly.

"By the way, this is only a tiny fraction of the wealth of Lord Ainz, for him to throw away hundreds of millions of coins made out of solid gold is trivial, I've seen him do it once over a servant that… well never mind that, no reason to embarrass her further. Anyway he can do it and it means nothing to him." Aura added.

"What does that number mean?" Rayla asked uncertainly.

"Which?" Aura asked.

"Millions." Rayla clarified.

"Oh, OK, how high do your numbers go?" Aura asked.

"Thousands." She replied.

"OK, so you've got a single thousand, right, then you add ninety-nine to that, and you've got one hundred sets of a thousand, that fits what you know, doesn't it?" Aura asked in a bored voice.

"Yes…" She said hesitantly.

"So you take ten sets of that hundred thousand, that gives you one million, if you have five hundred sets of that one million, you'll have five hundred million, and that is nothing for him to throw away. Does that help?" Aura asked.

From the way Rayla's face went pale, it did. "Told you." Chindai said dryly.

"Now that is just in money, that doesn't count the powerful items that can shatter the world as you know it, that doesn't count the lands he rules or will rule soon. You need to understand the gravity of your situation, follow me." Aura said, and the two chiefs, still gawking at the priceless art and incalculable coins, followed Aura and Mare out of the room. She led them into a small chamber a few minutes later, "go ahead, take a seat." She said and gestured to a simple but finely made table.

"Mare, the map." Aura said and tugged on her brother's ear.

"O-OKAY sister, ow!" He said and pulled a map out and put it on the table. It was rolled up, and from right to left, she began to unroll it before their eyes. "This is the Beastman Kingdom. Our master broke them by himself, with no other armies, in a few weeks, after they had literally eaten half of the Draconic Kingdom's citizens. They destroyed their own country apparently and were trying to survive by eating humans and each other. They now rely on him for supplies and support to restore their shattered country. That was a few years ago, and we have still not reached his kingdom.

Mare unrolled it a little further and Aura pointed to a spot on the map. "That is where the Baharuth Empire begins. They were the first to submit themselves as a vassal a few years ago. They are now completely loyal and their eighty thousand heavy armored soldiers, gryphon riders, and cavalry, not to mention all their magic casters, obey our master. The magic casters refer to our master usually as 'the god of magic' he is worshiped by Fluder Paradyne as such, the only human to ever reach out and grasp a seventh tier spell, albeit with some assistance, and he is nothing to our master's power."

"This is the Draconic Kingdom, my master saved them, and their Queen is surrendering her country to him as… was it a province or a vassal, first it was one, then it was the other, bah... I can't keep track, anyway it doesn't matter, she serves him now too, whichever it is." Aura said in childlike annoyance with herself.

Mare unrolled the map further. "This is E-Rantel, the first city to surrender to my master." Aura said proudly, "With one spell he destroyed an army of seventy thousand in one instant, and then another seventy or eighty thousand died when the monsters he raised from that spell trampled everyone else. Most of their army did not survive, so the city surrendered."

Chindai and Rayla were equally pale as the map unrolled further.

"This is the dwarf kingdom, they're vassals now too, my master's servant destroyed almost the entire quagoa race and forced the rest to surrender after they refused to yield to the first offer made to them. I was there to watch that, do you know how many it took to kill them down to some ten thousand?" She asked.

They shook their heads, they were mute. "One single one of our guardians, using one weapon, one handed, she swung, they died, the rest gave in. The dwarves offered their own surrender as well. On that same mission, my master killed the frost dragon king with one spell, and one of his heirs, immediately when they did not submit. He brought them both back from the dead, and now they serve him, the frost dragon king has been used to move soldiers through the air, and at one point he served as a mount to Pope Neia Baraja. The frost giants who lived in those mountains surrendered not long after." Aura said with a grin.

Mare unrolled further. "This is Re-Estize, my master is at peace with their royal family now, and is currently conquering the country, there are only two cities left now, and then both armies will be marching in your direction. Questions… so far?" She asked, implying there was more.

The two dark elf chiefs remained mute and stared transfixed at the world they didn't know exist as it was laid out before them.

"The Understone Empire is where my master currently is, and they'll be submitting within the week." Aura said as Mare unrolled the rest of the map. "You know already about the Abelion Hills, he destroyed the demon emperor and conquered the entire region by himself, and there is the Roble Holy Kingdom, the Queen there has offered her entire kingdom to him as a province when the war is over. So… that leaves you… and that leaves the Slane Theocracy, and the Elf Kingdom. We've already got soldiers dealing with the latter two. So that just begs the question, do you join with us, or do we roll over you?" Aura asked.

"S-sister, don't be mean, L-Lord Ainz said to b-be nice!" Mare said as he resumed gripping his staff anxiously.

"Yeah, right, look…" Aura said as she looked at the two chiefs, "It really isn't a bad deal, we're proud to serve our master, and all the places he's taken over, are better off for it, I guess now that you've seen the stick, I should show you the carrot."

A moment later the portal opened, and one by one they stepped through the gate.

It would be fair to say that Chindai and Rayla were gawking at what they saw around them, they'd 'heard' of cities, they knew what cities were, but in their minds they imagined them very differently. With nothing to compare it to, they saw cities as being just like big camps, but this was not that.

"Welcome to E-Rantel." Aura said with her arms open as she spun around with a smile. "This is the fruit of the Sorcerer King's work." She said. "Word of warning, see those things?" She said, pointing to a death knight. "Those are impossible for you to defeat, and if you draw a weapon here, they will put you down. This is the safest city in the world, there are hundreds of those things around here, no army in the world could hope to compare."

Aura and Mare started to walk down the street, with Chindai and Rayla following and gawking at everything like yokels, the smell of rich food filled the air, and Rayla's mouth watered.

"S-Sister, you forgot!" Mare said.

Aura shook her head, "Oh yeah, while you're here, you get the VIP treatment, I'll show you around, but you see something you want that is for sale, we'll get it for you as a gift of good will, but absolutely no taking things, and we're not supposed to force anyone to give anything up. The rights over property are strongly protected here. Got it?" She said firmly.

"Yes, but what is that smell!" Rayla asked, her mouth was watering, and Chindai was no different. Aura sniffed the air.

"Oh, over there." She said, "You hungry?" The pair nodded and both Aura and Mare approached the building, there was a large cooked bird on a sign hanging outside of it, clean outdoor tables, and a small staff of humans going back and forth bringing food and drinks to patrons.

A few minutes later they were seated and Aura had ordered the specials, within minutes of that, piping hot food was placed in front of them in crackling black bowls, a selection of sauces in small bowls, and a medium dish on which a golden cooked bird sat.

The two chiefs tore into the meal like it was their first, or their last, there wasn't a semblance of decorum and they did not care. Aura at least, found it amusing. When it was done, Rayla asked, "Could this be part of the Everplain?"

"No, this is our master's kingdom, this is the result of his rule, he brings prosperity, power, and wealth, to all his people. He considers it his duty." Aura said casually.

"L-Lord Ainz is the kindest ruler in the w-world." Mare said passionately.

"He must be a truly great chief…" Chindai admitted.

"Would you like to see the adventurer's guild?" Aura asked.

"What is that?" Rayla asked.

"That is where those who crave adventure, who do not fear danger, go to prepare themselves, they receive training, equipment, and support, and they then get to go out into the world prepared for risks, and explore everything, discover the unseen, the unknown, and fill in the blank places on the map of the world." Aura replied.

To the riders of the plains who value wide open places, it was like asking a child if they wanted candy. When the bill was paid, they went straight to the guild, to their surprise, a human seemed to be running the place, giving instructions to a team that was comprised of a lizardman, a dwarf, an elf, a half elf, and a human.

"Hey Ainzach, got a minute?!" Aura asked… by shouting as she came in through the door.

"Sister!" Mare said with embarrassment at how loud his sister was being.

"Excuse me." Ainzach said with a polite bow.

"Yes... Aura, Mare, what can I do for you?" He asked, then he saw the guests behind them.

"Oh, are these new adventurers?" He asked warmly.

"No, these are chiefs from the dark elf tribes on the plains south of the Understone Empire. We're giving them a tour." She said with a voice of passing amusement.

"I see, well what can I do to help?" He asked.

"Show them the equipment we give to adventurers, and maybe the dungeon, let them run through a few basics and earn some tokens so they can get something for themselves." Aura said, passing on the instructions.

"Certainly." He said, "I'm assuming the two of you have substantial skill already, so we'll start you off at… well, platinum difficulty, can we provide you with appropriate gear for that, or do you want to go in as is?" He asked the two.

Rayla and Chindai looked uncertain.

"You're the expert here, we will follow your lead. This is new to us." Chindai said diplomatically.

A few minutes later they were wearing rune crafted gear meant for platinum adventurers and they were looking at one another in stunned disbelief.

"You _GIVE_ this… _GIVE_ this to your 'adventurers'?" Chindai asked, incredulity was becoming his default state, and Rayla was no different.

"Not exactly, they earn it, the dungeon you're about to go through is meant to push the limits of your ability, to ensure that our adventurers reach their peak without dying, as they complete dungeon runs, they earn these tokens." He said, and pulled out a few things that looked like coins, stamped with the same insignia outside the guild itself on one side, and the name of the city on the other. "These can be turned in for better and better equipment, and that way they always have equipment suited to their skills and abilities. Inside the dungeon are undead observers, they wear red bands on their arms, they're there to ensure that you don't die."

"Amazing." Rayla said softly. "I have… I have lost many warriors before their time, those who had great potential, who might have become legends had they lived, but an arrow in the air has no care for potential or for destiny, and when it pierces the heart and sends them to the Everplain, then that is the end of what they might have been." She said regretfully and she looked over at Ainzach as he said in turn…

"I know. Before His Majesty, I saw so many, so very, very many young people, with eyes bright and enthusiastic, full of the strength and vigor of youth, eager to go out and make their mark on the world. Only to have the bad luck to encounter the wrong enemy at the wrong time, before they were ready, and we lose them, they're gone, and can't get them back. His Majesty, in his impossible wisdom, saw a way to break that cycle. I now haven't lost anyone, yet my adventurers continue to get stronger, we now have three adamantite teams, if you don't know, that's as high as our ratings go, an adamantite adventurer is in the realm of legendary heroes. Before His Majesty, they were all but nonexistent, a single country might have one or two, but now this city alone has three. He nurtures talent, potential, and wealth, and I've never known anyone to be worse off under his rule."

Rayla looked over to Aura, "I'm sold, I want to try out this dungeon first, win an item or two, but I'm sold. I will submit my tribe to Chindai, if they protest, I will marry him to cement the bond irrevocably." Rayla's voice was bold and confident, there was no question in her mind that she was doing the right thing.

She looked over to Chindai, fairly daring him to object. "I will leave you and my only current wife to hammer those terms out, that is her right, but your people will be my people, and my people will be your people, and we will ride the plains together." He said confidently as he took her hand.

"Uh huh, long as it gets done, but who do we have to deal with next?" Aura asked.

"The next would normally be a problem." Chindai said. "But if you provide us with weapons and heavenly horses, with our current sudden growth, we can take care of them with ease."

"You're talking about the Skinned Horse tribe, aren't you?" Rayla asked.

"I am." He said.

"Weird name." Aura said dismissively.

"D-do they skin their horses?" Mare asked with a look of disgust.

"No, they skin their enemies, and then they drape the skins over their horses, the horses end up looking like they've been skinned themselves. Their horsemanship is second to none, they are a large tribe and can field ten thousand riders, they also have close ties to the Slane Theocracy, or rather, they did. The Theocracy supplied them with weapons and armor and support to bring down the Red Flail tribe a few years ago."

"What happened to them?" Aura asked with a mild 'not quite' disinterested curiosity.

"The Red Flail tribe?" Ryla said, "They were vastly reduced, half their numbers killed, if the Dark Dwarves ever bought Dark Elves as slaves, I'm sure many would have been sold, but they seem to have decided that we're either 'near equals' or it just isn't practical to buy a slave that only has to run a few miles to be safe if they can get out. No idea which, we've sold many slaves to them over the years, but none since things changed on the Abelion Hills." She said casually.

"So, lets try out this dungeon thing." She said with a grin.

An hour later she and Chindai were tired, sore, and battered, but with a 'little help' from another small team of adventurers that they'd seen earlier, they got the gist of the dungeon and began to run it with the group. The multi ethnic team proved very capable and quite willing to help them understand what they were supposed to do and how, trap checks, treasure hunting, these were new in this environment and they, put kindly, were not very good at it. However they were dark elf chiefs and combat was natural, even if they tended to prefer it from horseback.

They enjoyed it so thoroughly in this context however, that they ran through the dungeon several more times and accumulated enough tokens to trade for a few items, the ever changing dungeon was a source of fascination, with the shifting walls and changing rooms, it was readily understood how this could benefit a warrior's training and hone their instincts.

When they finally left and came back in to the guild hall, they held up tokens enough that Chindai was able to acquire a ring of sustenance, and Ryla purchased boots of enhanced agility. That still left several spare tokens which, weren't enough for anything. The pair looked at the tokens reluctantly.

"Give these to the next team to come in, they stayed to do it again, but they helped us to understand, let it not be said that the Dead Eagle tribe does not pay its debts." Ryla said and handed them over to Ainzach.

"Give them my spares as well, if I can ever return to this place, I would like to do it again, and I will earn them back." Chindai said, and handed his over as well.

"Is there anything else we should do before we go?" Ryla asked with the look of a convert's zeal in her eyes.

"Got her." Aura thought with satisfaction.

"Just one thing, please follow me." She said, and an hour later they were standing at a massive four columned building of sheer smooth marble.

"What is this… is it a hall of the gods?" Ryla asked softly. Chindai doubted it was that, but with his mouth hanging open in disbelief he couldn't suggest anything else.

"N-no, i-it's an art museum." Mare answered.

"Yeah, I'm not much for that stuff, Mare, you take them through, I want a drink over there and I'll be right back." Aura said.

"O-okay sister." He said.

"What is it for?" Chindai asked.

"M-museums are where pretty pictures and statues and things go, and then anybody can come and look at them." Mare answered as Aura strolled off.

The pair of dark elves entered after Mare, and any further doubts about the usefulness of the place were gone. Intricate paintings of demons, strange looking angels, monsters, gods, scenes of nature, sculptures of idealized forms of physical beauty, it was an assault on their senses yes, but it was so much more.

It assaulted their understanding of the world as well, but even that was minor compared to something else. Something much more important.

This was an assault on their pride as a people. That others created these works of art and shared them with the world, but their tribes were locked down to one small region while others got to ride the world itself while also creating objects of unparalleled magnificence? It was an affront to them both, them and all the tribes.

Mare took them from one thing to another, explaining that some were original pieces to this city or somewhere else under the Sorcerer King's rule, but others were replicas from his private collection. There was no room left for doubt, by the time the tour ended, Ryla had only one question.

"If all our tribes join together, if we offer our service to the Sorcerer King, aid in his war against our common foe, we could have, and do… this?" She asked.

Mare nodded in the anxious way he always did. "H-he says he won't know your worth t-till you show it, s-so we shouldn't destroy any we d-don't have to."

"Let's go back, we'll need to plan out how to bring over or bring down the Skinned Horse tribe." Chindai said, and Ryla nodded emphatically.

"Yes. Let's." She said.

Aura was waiting for them when they exited the building.

"You supply the means in weapons or wealth and heavenly horses, we will give you the tribes, all of them. One way or the other." Ryla said as they came down the steps.

"Sleep tonight when you get home, you will have everything you need in the morning." Aura said, and opened the gate. Chindai and Ryla stepped through it, this time neither was even the least bit hesitant.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	6. To Ride the World

_...Dead Eagle Camp…_

When the pair returned back to where they'd begun, there were a thousand times a thousand questions thrown in the direction of their chief. She'd called for an assembly, and sat atop a cart next to Chindai while they gathered. Their numbers were considerable, and when the last of them arrived and sat themselves, grouped by family ties within the tribe, only then did she stand in the uncovered wagon and begin to explain everything that she had seen and heard.

There were utterances of disbelief, yet those who had been present confirmed the whorling void into which she'd stepped with Chindai, who despite being of a rival tribe, confirmed the matter as well.

She explained the many things she'd seen, a realm of gods with matchless wealth, a realm of weapons and armor of power that their most skillful could not even begin to touch. And that they were being 'given away' to those who were worthy of them, and proved it by the work of their bodies against challenges that promised great personal prowess for success, but without the loss of life.

"No warrior dies before they are the best that they can be!" She shouted. "Their people all eat good food, food the likes of which for all our wealth we have never dreamt of! They have buildings of stone that stand like mountains, and they exist only to hold objects of unsurpassed beauty! We Dark Elves, no matter our tribe, have always prided ourselves on the way we ride the plains! But now I tell you that they ride the WORLD as we ride the plains! Why should we be confined?! Why should we be denied the finest arts, the finest foods, the chance at greatness?! If we join hands as one people, we are promised opportunity, not only for all these things, but to PUNISH those who have manipulated us against one another for generations. Our tribe then will join with the Golden Arrow tribe, not in an alliance of old, but we will unite as one tribe, one people, and we will ride the fucking WORLD!" She called out, and held her hands out before her, bracketing the setting sun, as if she held it in her grip.

"She is not their leader because of beauty alone, that is sure." Chindai thought, and as he watched it all take place, waiting to see if he would be asked to speak, he felt as if, for a moment… that he could see it all. He foresaw the meeting of Khava and Ryla, the negotiations of marriage that all wives conducted when another was to be added, he smirked in amusement, the head of the most mercantile tribe against the southern elf whose cunning had helped him win his beads… if people told stories of haggling, theirs would be one such tale. He felt that he saw the riding over the plains beneath the tireless horses plucked from the Everplains of the afterlife, bringing down the masses of their united tribe on the Skinned Horses. In that moment as he saw not right before him, but the long road, the many tribes united and a staggering vision of a hundred thousand mounted dark elves sweeping down on the Slane Theocracy. He thought he would die of sheer happiness.

He was brought out of his vision when she finished speaking and tapped him on the shoulder, he stood up and looked at the tribe, they did not look quite as robust as his people, but they had not survived on the harsh plains for nothing.

When a question came to him, he answered, "Yes, I will marry your chief, you will be my people, and my people will be your people, and we shall from then on speak no more as if we are not one great tribe." He projected his voice out over the mass, speaking with sincerity and confidence, he held his body casually, as one would when speaking to friends, just as she projected authority, he projected familiarity.

The potent combination between the two working together had a winning effect, and that night a great feast was held that celebrated the new arrangement.

The firelight kissed his skin as he sat on a mound of dirt and grass that he had quickly piled up for himself. He ate slowly and looked into the flames as if trying to recapture the vision he had beheld earlier.

Ryla saw this, and taking food for herself, she approached and sat down next to him. "You are troubled?" She asked gently.

"No." He said as he looked into the flames.

"Could it be that you are reluctant to marry again? I will not demand that you love me, as you do your other one, that is just the way of things sometimes, though I have heard you of the Golden Arrow are sometimes…" she paused as she searched for a kind word for it, "...Passionate, about such things."

"No, it is not that, Khava is a fine woman, she will take no issue with this, truth be told I think you two will get on exceedingly well, and too, though I am only now meeting you, I think we will have a good life, that I will care for you, that we will have strong children, all of us." He said as he set his food aside and looked from the flames before him, into her eyes which now reflected the fire instead.

She smiled, it was a lovely smile. "And yet?" She asked.

"I came heralding change, but as I sat beside you I beheld a vision of that change, of a hundred thousand dark elves of the plains, gathered together in one army and sweeping down on the Slane Theocracy, it is not a doubt for victory that I feel or that I fear, rather that is where my vision ended, what of 'after' it all? Who will we be when we no longer war against one another, with trade pouring in from the world? With all that may change, will we not also lose who we are, and who we have always been?" He asked.

She laughed, it was like the ringing of a bell, melodic and lovely. "You might have been born one of us and not known it, with talk of the future like that." She said as she laid her hand on his thigh.

He snorted back a laugh and put his hand over hers. "Ryla, perhaps this is a silly concern, but as chiefs we must think of the many tomorrows, not just the moment, you can't chase a herd in the season of it's absence, nor fire an arrow that has yet to be made. We must craft good arrows, learn the ways of the new seasons, or when we have won and proven our worth in the eyes of this 'Supreme Being' when the foot people come into our lands, they may leave us with nothing. I fear the days of life in the saddle will change when we take our place to bestride the world." He said with heavy heart.

"Perhaps that is so, and I will mourn its passing, but if," she took his hand and placed it over her belly, she stilled her speech and held his eyes, "if I bear good children, strong children, and we prepare them to move out into that world, and mount the world as we mount horses, I can live with them not understanding us, because it is their world they must understand best, not ours. It is our job to give that world to them, we will birth a new way, and it may be as painful as it is to birth a child, but we will triumph, and what comes after, we will leave to them. Let them have that concern, don't take on their burdens as well as your own. No man can carry more than his own generation's woes." Her voice was soft and thoughtful and she reached up with her free hand and caressed one long elven ear.

"You are truly a wise ruler, Ryla." Chindai said as he put his forehead against hers, "We will be fortunate to have you."

She smirked, "Well, I could have told you that."

He laughed, his mood was improving and his troubles fading like the firelight beside them.

"Do you sleep?" She asked, the hour had grown late, and many of the others had already left, only a few remained and those were frequently too drunk to make it back to their tents.

"Oh, I'm wearing the ring I traded tokens for, I don't need sleep." He said casually.

"Good," she said and stood up. "Then come with me." She took his hand and led him to the large conical dome tent that belonged to her. She opened the way and led him within, carefully securing the flap as she removed her clothing. "We can sleep after. Tomorrow we fight, many die, but tonight we live." She said duskily as his own clothing came off.

The cover of night, the warmth of the tent, the heat of Ryla's warmth as they remained entwined after their lovemaking, even with the ring on, he wondered if it was possible that this might wear him down. He suppressed the thought with a smile that remained inside his mind. He slipped the ring off and set it aside for morning. To lie together and sleep, helpless and unaware, was a sign of abiding trust he would not deny the bold tribal chief. As he drifted off, he foresaw the intricate plans that could be laid between Khava and Ryla as they guided the future of their united tribe. Wise council was worth more than gold coin. His previous anxiety about the future of their people had faded as their passion for what may always be the last embrace before battle.

They clasped hands together, naked beneath the fur that kept the autumn air at bay. "Promise me something." Ryla said softly.

"What?" Chindai asked. His eyes locked with hers even in the dark.

"If I fall tomorrow against the Skinned Horse tribe, promise me you will take my people anyway, with or without a marriage." She said. "I have not been a perfect chief, I failed to foresee the changes in the Abelion Hills that would destroy the slave trade, so I did not prepare against it, I failed to predict the Theocracy interference, and so their attempt at unbalancing the tribes here again caught me offguard. But this, this I know, I am making the right choice here, but even when you make the right choice, things can still go wrong. If a stray arrow should end my life, I want to pass knowing my people's futures are secure. If I have that, I know I will not mind dying so much."

His hands tightened over hers, "I gave my word, and my word is good no matter what else. Our people will unite, and if I should pass tomorrow, then go to Khava with the two dark elf envoys, tell them what happened, what our bargain was, she will make it work." He said with certainty in every word.

They slept easily after that, with neither light nor sound to disturb them until the day dawned anew.

Chindai rose first, and found his hand still on the breast of the chief with whom he'd lain the previous night. "Lucky hand." He said with a little hint of humor.

He got up and dressed, stretching as he did so, and looked down at the sleeping Ryla. She was curled there as they had fallen into one another's arms afterwards, she muttered sounds that might have been words in the dream she was still caught up in. After a moment's thought, he chose not to wake her, letting her move gently in her sleep, he covered her back up for her comfort, and then left the tent.

Most of the camp was awake now, excitement was in the air and they were preparing meals, but also stringing bows and sharpening swords. When the envoys returned, if they fulfilled their bargain and delivered everything, the puppets of the Slane Theocracy would never see this coming.

But first, breakfast.

That was easy enough to find, plenty of pots were going as people began the day, and he quickly found a seat with a very elderly looking dark elf woman, she smiled toothlessly at him.

"Yer a little young fer me, lad." She said with a laugh, causing him to blush.

"If the food is fresh, doesn't matter if you are!" He winked at her, and her laugh got louder.

"Alright son, yer probably hungry, wager our chief went and worked you over hard." She winked at him, and he blushed again.

"Repeatedly." He said dryly, teasing the old woman.

She kept at the pot for a few moments more and took a deep inhale from it, "Ahhh, perfect." She said and ladled some out of the pot and into a bowl, which she handed to him.

"Thanks, granny." He said kindly as he took a roll of bread and tore a piece off of it and dunked it into the breakfast stew.

"I see you've met my grandmother." Ryla said as she came up behind him, her voice was quite dry as she sat down, "Probably doing her best to make you blush." She added with a roll of her eyes.

"She's good at that." He said in an equally deadpan voice.

"Old people." She said with a little laugh that the toothless old woman shared. "No filters."

"Filters are for them that got time ta think of other ways to say things, don't apply to those of us who ain't got much time left." She said and wagged her finger at her granddaughter.

"She's got a point." Chindai said.

"Not you too?" She smacked his thigh, which he pretended hurt and rubbed gingerly with a wounded expression on his face.

That might have gone on for some time, but it was just then that the gate opened in the camp once again. Out of that came Aura and Mare, and behind them trailed undead horse after undead horse after undead horse. Each one carried double packs on their flanks, loaded down with weapons and armor.

"H-How many did you bring?" He asked in shock as he stood up to stare.

"Well, five hundred or so for now, but we'll get more for you later. As far as the weapons and armor go though, there is enough for all of you. However we did have to put the adventurer's guild on 'vacation' for a bit, we gave all current adventurers a paid vacation and a free hotel room while the dungeon was shut down until new armor could be made. We pulled a lot for this one, so this will arm everyone here and everyone back with Chindai's wife and all." Aura said proudly.

"P-please try it on!" Mare said as he clumsily got out from behind his sister.

People swarmed the shipment as fast as they could, taking out swords, and armor and eagerly putting them on. Amazement and awe were the only two adequate words as the dark elves tried out the equipment provided by the Sorcerous Kingdom.

"You fulfilled your end of the bargain." Chindai said as he approached the two dark elves. "I'm impressed." He said.

"Why?" Aura asked curiously.

"Because you are powerful." He said. "Usually a bargain with the powerful is not to be trusted, yet it appears you are intent on doing exactly what you promised us."

"How powerful can someone be if they can't even hold up their own bargains?" Aura asked dismissively.

"No." He said with a chuckle, "I mean that they deliberately break their agreements because nobody will be able to hold them accountable, you could easily have just killed most and enslaved the rest, but you're dealing honestly and giving us the power to succeed. I don't see that often." He said calmly.

"Lord Ainz put his name to this task, I expect he would tolerate nothing less." She said proudly.

Behind them, most of the tribe was armed, and there were soon five hundred mounted dark elves with new undead mounts.

"How long till the rest of the tribe has those Everplains horses?" He asked thoughtfully.

"We got permission from Lady Albedo, our guardian overseer, to use as many wands as we needed." Aura said, all smiles, "So we'll go back to your tribe, use the dead mounts there, and so on. We'll add more undead mounts at every engagement, soon everyone will have one, maybe more." Aura said as she thought it through.

"Anyway, that is all we'll need to succeed here." She said, "Are you ready to go?"

"Oh, absolutely." He said.

"Ryla!" He called out, and she sauntered up to him wearing a new form fitting breastplate, greaves, and a protective band over her forehead. All of it was colored white but glowed with the faint indicators of unfamiliar magic.

"I'm ready to go." She said as she sheathed a runecrafted sword, "Go get yourself equipped, then let's go back to your tribe… or rather, the other half of 'our' tribe." She said, correcting herself with a satisfied and confident expression.

"Damn right!" He proudly stated, and selected for himself solid boots that enhanced his agility, a sword that glowed faintly white, and had a rune on it that Aura informed him meant 'cold' for ice damage. He also took a breastplate of black that was enchanted with piercing resistance, greaves that strengthened his muscles, and a bit more besides. As it was, he looked the picture of the warrior dark elf as he sheathed his sword and went to his own undead mount.

"Ryla, do you want to ride on the horse with me, or will you ride your own?" He asked, it was a welcome thought, to ride back with the chief's arms around his body, but she smirked at him and went to get her own undead horse.

"I can handle it." She said confidently, "But there is just one question." She asked.

"Oh? What's that?" He asked as he swung his leg up over the horse and affixed himself to the saddle.

"Can you keep up?" She said, and spurred the horse into a sprint right past him. He laughed and spurred his own mount after her, and for once in his life, he not only felt like he could ride forever, on this horse, with this ring, he knew without a doubt, that he really, truly could.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	7. Women of the Plains

_...Dead Eagle Encampment..._

Riding a horse that would never tire. Only the dead on the Everplains had ever known this, yet now Ryla had one beneath her, one plucked from death itself, in the quietness of her heart, that place within beneath the laughter and happiness of her present state, she resolved that the being to bestow this upon her and her people must surely be a god.

Chindai grinned as her long hair went high in the air behind her, it was beautiful. He did not know what other instructions Ryla had given to her people, whether they would remain there or follow after, but he could find that out after catching up with her.

Aura and Mare watched them go, where Mare was a little confused, Aura was a little annoyed. "They're a passionate bunch, I'll give them that." She said as she put her fists on her hips and watched them ride.

"W-What are they doing, sister?" Mare asked, rushing up to her and clutching his staff tightly.

"I'm guessing they're racing back to his camp, it only takes three hours on those things, and that is if they stop. Doesn't matter, as far as… well people outside of Nazarick go, Chindai seems smart, he's not going to screw this up by doing anything stupid, let's relax a bit." Aura said and got up on the wagon where Ryla had been speaking before, and Mare sat beside her.

They watched for a while as the dark elf tribe went about its work, hunters went out in search of game, this time on undead horses, and within an hour they came back ecstatic at the way these tireless Everplains mounts performed. This enthusiasm was transferred in turn to the ones who procured them, and as tasks were completed, the various dark elves of the Dead Eagle tribe made their way over to take a seat in front of where the twins sat.

Mare was not enjoying himself, and shifted uncomfortably, however Aura waxed between indifference and basking, the elves on the sixth floor were prone to fussing over her, and she didn't much like that. However this was a little different.

"S-sister, why are they staring at us?" Mare asked.

Aura sat up from her reclined, relaxed position. "So… how come you're all staring at us?" She asked.

"Th-that's rude to ask." Mare whispered.

"It's usually rude to stare." Aura retorted in a hoarse whisper, "You wanna know, you gotta ask." She said in annoyance.

"You brought us horses from the Everplains, are you gods? How can we not stare?" One of the dark elves said.

"No. We are only servants of a god." Aura said proudly. "We serve as guardians in his home, he tasked us here to get something done." She said.

"Uniting us?" Someone asked.

"S-something like that." Mare replied. "S-see…" He began, then Aura interjected.

"I got this one." She said to him with a grin. She then set one arm on her knee and bent forward to look them over.

"OK, so...I guess your chief didn't really give you the whole picture, so since we've got some time, I'll fill you in. You probably know that the Slane Theocracy has stupidly decided to fight our master, Lord Ainz Ooal Gown, the master of life and of death. You also probably know that they've been screwing with you all for years, like, generations, I guess?" Aura pondered that, but the nods she got said they understood that this was so.

"Well, the Slane Theocracy wants you divided, because as long as you're divided, you're weak, but united, you're strong, you could challenge them, and they don't want that. But since you can never challenge my master, he prefers the best for you, that you be strong, that you be united. He figures you might have some strengths, uses, power, potential, I don't know, he didn't say, but he's never wrong so there must be something about you that impressed him. So we're going to wreck part of that mountain over there." She pointed to the distant mountain peaks. "Then march an army through here, some of you already probably heard that. Before that happens, we want to get your entire region under one rule." She said.

"Why Chindai?" Someone asked. "His is not the strongest of the tribes."

"No, but we had the plains pretty well figured out, and his tribe was changing, they'd come up with new crops that were going to let them settle for longer periods, in another fifty years, he might have had a city, and he would have been the largest and most powerful tribe, or so I'm told, I didn't read the report, I just got it from Lord Demiurge and his assistant, they suggested who I should talk to first." Aura explained patiently.

"Is Lord Ainz Ooal Gown your father?" Someone asked.

Mare blushed. "No, we don't have fathers or mothers."

"They died?" Someone asked sadly.

"No, I mean we weren't born, we were created to serve a supreme being, just the way we look right now." Aura said passingly, her voice turned happy, "We were created by Lady Bukubukuchagama. One of the forty-one supreme beings of Nazarick as guardians for one of their floors."

"Ah, is she a god?" Someone else inquired.

"To us, yes, but she went away somewhere." Aura looked briefly sad, "They all did, except one, the one who commanded them all, the most powerful of them all. He stayed with us, and we're glad he did." Aura said with a little smile at her brother, he looked about to weep at the mention of Lady Bukubukuchagama, but cheered up as Aura finished speaking.

_...Open Plains…_

It didn't take them long to reach the great water source where the Golden Arrow tribe had made its camp. The bodies were now disposed of, and their temporary fortifications had been erected as a security precaution.

Khava, for her part, had retained a silent vigil since the break of dawn, staring out onto the wide open grounds, waiting for her husband to return. She felt her heart leap with happiness as she recognized him racing his impossible mount over the plains. But then she tilted her head with curiosity as she realized there was another with him, someone on another equally impossible horse.

"Open the gate!" She shouted, and two of her people followed her instructions immediately.

It creaked open slowly, the crude wood a mockery of the gates she knew from Crescent Lake, or even from the Slane Theocracy during her time as a prisoner. How she'd enjoyed killing them, she'd taken down two breakers after her capture, before realizing her best chance to escape was to pretend they had succeeded in taming her. Within a week she'd been transported for sale, within minutes of being on the block she had been sold to a lecher, within a few hours of being taken to his home she'd massacred his household and escaped. The gates might be crude compared to both locations, but the people within them… vastly better.

In her heart she spat upon both places, and looked with love at the crude structures she now preferred.

Chindai rode in without stopping until he'd reached the center of camp and reared this marvelous horse up to a stop, before leaping from the back and waving to Khava. Khava herself could not move fast enough for her heart, and it pounded harder as she flung herself towards her husband and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hungry, ravenous kiss, she clutched his ears in her fingers and held him close. "Missed you." She said.

"Missed you more." He replied in that mock competitive voice he often used. Right behind him had come another rider, who dismounted just as the kiss broke and approached the pair.

"You are Khava, I am sure, your husband has spoken of you. I am Ryla, chief of the Dead Eagle tribe." She bowed politely.

Khava looked the woman over, beautiful, young, strong spirit, she rode with passion, and she was bold with her words. Ryla met with her approval.

"Anything change since my departure?" Chindai asked.

"Nothing too significant, our riders indicate that the others will be here this afternoon. The Black Club tribe will be of great help, there is still some tension with Baga's people after the… display, but many are very young, very, very young. They are tense because their elders are tense. Of those who remain who are adults, few are of fighting age and most are women."

Chindai scratched his ear, "Well, that is a difficulty, there are not so many men looking to have another for their tents, nor do I think the women will be happy to marry the men who slew those they knew."

"Well that is easy. My tribe has many unmarried men, they can be paired up accordingly." Ryla said, addressing the problem cheerfully.

"I assume, from what you're saying, you are drawing your tribe into the Golden Arrow?" Khava asked.

"I am, I have seen the future, I have seen the realms beyond our plains, I want our children to bestride the world and ride beneath the everlasting sky, trapping such potential, even on these marvelous plains, it is a prison sentence when the world is so much more vast than that." Ryla said emphatically. "Our future is out there," she gestured to the area beyond the walls, "I would see us take it."

"I agree, I am from Crescent Lake, we had a bad king, still do, I ended up in even worse hands than his, and killed my way to freedom here, yet if there is a force that will bring down the bad and open up the world to me again, I will embrace it." Khava said passionately.

Ryla smiled brightly, it was a gesture matched by Khava. "I am pleased to meet you Chief Ryla." Khava said as she held out her arm. "May I call you friend?"

Ryla grasped her hand to the forearm of Khava, who closed her hand in turn, "I would be honored, but it is better for us all if I call you sister."

"My husband has proposed to marry you? No, I know him better than that, it was you who proposed it, wasn't it?" Khava asked, looking sideways at Chindai, "Bold as he may be in battle, when it comes to women he takes far too long to say the things he should."

Chindai looked a little bit sheepish when Ryla laughed at the comment. "You have the right of it… shall it be sister? Or shall I call you friend instead?"

Khava hadn't looked away from Chindai, "Husband mine, I have not yet seen to the disposition of our warriors this morning, why don't you tend that while we tend to the business of women."

It was a dismissal he definitely did not mind, though he barely held in his laughter as he acquiesced.

The women relaxed their grip on one another's arms. "Join me in my tent Ryla, we can settle that in short order I think." Khava said kindly.

A few moments later they sat cross legged with a table between them. Khava poured a small bowl of wine and offered it to Ryla, who took it between two hands, then Khava poured one for herself. They drank deeply together, then cast the bowls behind them.

"There, that is a proper welcome for a guest." Khava said, Ryla bowed her head to her host in gratitude.

"Now, I must know first, did you lie with my husband last night or any other time?" Khava asked.

"I did." Ryla said boldly, "He made your tent proud, he knows much of how to please a woman."

Khava smiled archly, "We practice often. Very often." She enjoyed for a moment, her salacious memories and expectations, "But will he say the same of you, I love him greatly, and would not even begin negotiations with one who only took pleasure, and offered none in turn?"

"He would, I left him so that only his ring of sustenance allowed him to rise from my tent in the morning." Ryla answered proudly.

"I would know more of this ring later, but now one more question. Can you love him? Our lives are long ones if the plains do not take us, but even were they short, they should be happy." Khava looked intently at the woman's dark eyes, physically the two women were like mirror images, the golden blonde of the south, the deep black of the north, pale skin, tan skin, yet their bodies showed the hard lives that made for hard men and women, the plains demanded strength or took life in payment. Neither had failed in the offer of strength, and so on common ground they sat and found their mirror.

Ryla took a deep breath, "I can, I will, and though I admit the tumult of the last day may befuddle me for all that I have seen, I will not deny the swelling in my breast. He is handsome, strong, passionate, a good chief, he will make great children, there is much more to him that I would know, and if you would permit it, then I would call you sister with pride."

Khava thought for a long moment, this was not the culture of her birth, though she had embraced it all, this was at least, something new to her.

"You know I am not of these lands, even were you half blind, this would be clear." Khava said softly.

"I do, you are of the south, I have heard from others the tale of how you killed your way to freedom and found your way here, you live up to your story." Ryla said.

"Thank you, yet I must confess, though I have adopted this place as my home, these people as my own, the plains as my own, I have never done what we now do, I know how it is to begin, but not how to do this well, save by second hand." Khava admitted her weakness with reluctance, but part of her felt she could trust Ryla.

"Shall I assist?" Ryla asked, "Or if you prefer an elder as a surrogate, I will take no offense, to share a tent is no mean thing, to share a life, how much more is that?"

"I will accept your help." Khava smiled warmly.

"The first is simple, it is understood that neither may request the other be set aside, to force a man to divide against his tent. Two, we agree that we each share a part in the plunder when it is taken, save what is set aside for the tent, in whatever form it is taken. In the past, when slaves were party to that, we would have negotiated how many sheep or goats or horses various types of persons were worth if they could not be divided equally. That is no longer a concern."

Khava nodded, "I understand, go on."

"The next part is this… I desire children, and I assume you do also?" Ryla asked.

Khava nodded emphatically. "I do."

"Then we must divide our times with him accordingly, if an equal split is acceptable to you?" Ryla asked.

"It is." Khava said.

"Very well, I propose however, that if one should conceive before the other, then the one yet to conceive be given priority thereafter until either she conceives or the child is born." Ryla said.

Khava thought that through, "On condition that the one with child not be required to remain celibate as the other strives to bear a child of her own, I would not much care to go untouched for months."

Ryla laughed, "I accept that condition. Now the next is…"

Their talk went on for three hours more as they hammered out the details, but when it was done, Ryla reached across the table, and Khava took her arm as they had in greeting.

"Then I will call you my sister." Ryla said proudly.

"And I will call you mine. Let your marriage take place as soon as possible." Khava said.

"Tonight then." Ryla said, "We will be fighting a battle against the Skinned Horse tribe, let our life begin on the night that blood is shed."

"I gain a sister the night that puppets of the Theocracy are cut down and brought to heel? I am truly a fortunate woman." Khava said as they got up and walked out of the tent.

Chindai was just approaching the door as they exited.

"The negotiations are finished?" He asked.

"Yes. This is now my sister, Ryla, we will be as one, till the plains claim our bones." Khava said in a dignified voice.

"Good, have you set the wedding then?" He asked.

"Tonight, after the Skinned Horses are brought to heel." Ryla said.

"Good, a bride, and I cut the strings of Theocracy puppets, this is a good day." Chindai said.

"What were you coming to see us about?" Khava asked, "You know that men may not enter while such negotiations take place." She looked a little irked as she remarked on that.

"The twins are here, they say another five hundred horses are ready." He said.

"More?!" Ryla asked in disbelief.

"Yes." He said. "I said the same, and they tell me that they have forty thousand to prepare for use. It only takes time to make them all. By the time the Black Club tribe arrives this afternoon, they will have another five hundred."

"That is still not the whole of our tribes though." Ryla remarked.

Khava had a malicious grin on her face. "It doesn't need to be, sister. If we each have five hundred, then each of our three peoples can mingle together, we choose our best, we send them to fight, and we show these puppets what these horses can do. They cannot pursue us, they cannot outrun us, all we need to do is break their ability to move."

"Your reputation is well deserved." Ryla said as she foresaw the movement of fifteen hundred of their warriors riding circles around the more limited mounts of their foes, unable to flee or to pursue.

"Also, they have gone ahead and brought more weapons and armor, our best will bear the best." Chindai added enthusiastically as bloodlust filled his eyes.

"Have you seen our husband in battle yet?" Khava asked.

"No, not yet." Ryla replied.

"You will be more proud than you yet know, when you see what he can do." Khava said proudly.

Subot arrived with his advanced party several hours later, in the early afternoon, and when he did he went to Chindai and they clasped forearms like old friends.

He looked at the magic armor that Chindai and numerous others were wearing, and the impossible horses were now hundreds in number, and his eyes went white and wide. "You've been holding out on us, when do we get this?" He asked enviously.

"The weapons and armor arrived a few hours ago, another five hundred of these horses will arrive soon, there are forty thousand total being delivered five hundred at a time." Chindai said happily.

"So what happens next?" He asked.

"First this." He said and looked over a few feet away, "Ryla!" He called, and the dark elf woman excused herself from whom she was speaking with and approached.

"Subot, this is Ryla, chief of the Dead Eagle tribe, she has agreed to join with us as well, she is also to be a wife to me, beginning after we strike the Skinned Horse tribe. They are the most recent puppets of the Theocracy."

Khava approached from behind him and fell in with the trio, "I will enjoy their deaths. I am reluctant to spare any, but they who are reshaping the world, demand what mercy that can be given." She said, resigned to letting some live.

"A sentiment we share, but this must be. After we strike them down, the survivors will be incorporated into the whole, and we will send word on these wondrous horses from the Everplains. With them the whole of the land will know of our joining. The Red Flail tribe was hurt badly in their war against the Skinned Horse tribe. They will join us willingly I think, to strike at the Theocracy. Let it be known that any tribe who joins us will receive the tireless horses, and the favor of he that created them, while all others, those who refuse or who become puppets of the Slane Theocracy, will become targets for the rest. In this way, we can unite the larger tribes quickly, and the smaller tribes will fall into line."

"That will give us a united army, husband, but it will not give us a united country in the way that the Slane Theocracy has it." Khava added.

"What do you propose?" He asked.

"I suggest we have the young men of the tribes court the women of the other tribes, and have the young women do the same rather than keeping the tribes apart, if they blend their lines, they will be united through their children." Khava proposed thoughtfully.

"I would also require that the units mix, let all the tribes fight blended together, so that brotherhood is formed by shared danger between groups instead of only within groups, in this way we might see all unite together." Ryla added.

"You have wise councillors." Subot said as the vision they laid out flew before his eyes.

"I have chosen my wives wisely." Chindai replied with a grin.

"Husband, it is I who chose you." Khava and Ryla said in unison, prompting another sheepish look from the chief who foresaw a most enjoyable, if harried, married life.

**AN: (Thoughts?)**


	8. Rise of the Horse People

_…Golden Arrow Encampment..._

It didn't take long for the enthusiastic dark elves to select and don the armor or weapons provided by the Sorcerous Kingdom. Equipment the sort of which they had only dreamt of, was now carried and worn with pride. But most of all, what saw them draw their new supporter unto their hearts was the horses, the term 'Horses of the Everplains' or 'Everplains Horses' became the popular term for the undead mounts that never tired or thirsted or hungered.

Some enthusiastic tribal warriors spent hours just riding around in wide circles at full speed, joyful that there was no need to ever slow themselves. It was a vision of the afterlife they had long heard of, but no longer a vision, it was their reality.

The young women of the Golden Arrow, and the White Arrow, and the Black Club, poured bowls of wine for those who were chosen by the tribal chiefs for the elite five hundred. Those men and women who had donned armor, received special primacy that hour, those who rode out to deal death or have it dealt, were seldom denied. An hour of delights in a tent with someone of the tribe, though it was little noted that those who had joined most recently out of defeat, spent their time among the Black Club tribe's arrivals.

There were normally large feasts for such a sendoff, but Aura and Mare had been clear, everything had to be swift, so an hour or two was allotted for recreation first. Ryla, Khava, and Chindai were most reluctant to refrain from such enjoyments, however their obligations in leadership were prohibitive, and so they walked among the chosen thousand already present and spoke encouraging words, praising thoughtfully a sharp sword or a sharp eye where they saw it.

That was the way of things, and they accepted their place in it. Aura and Mare seemed just on the edge of annoyance at the tradition, but cooperative enough since they had time to spare.

"How long until the Dead Eagles five hundred meet up with us?" Chindai asked Mare curiously. "Th-they'll meet you on the way." He said nervously.

"Oh?" He asked.

"Y-yes, they've probably already left, s-so you should get going soon too!" He said.

"I suppose an hour more is too much, isn't it." He said idly.

And in that moment he felt the looming eyes of the nervous looking boy and ice in his veins as the focused killing intent hit him like a mountain. "Y-yes." He said.

When the killing intent was gone, he looked around him, there was no one else who even noticed, of that he was glad. The boy before him might have been odd, he might have seemed nervous, but as he felt that and heard the stuttered nervous 'yes' while his blood turned to ice in his body, he realized something. This nervous, anxious appearance was just the surface, beneath the boy was a monster with unfathomable power.

"We will be ready momentarily, the last should be… finishing any moment now." He said, feeling the nervousness that the boy only 'displayed'.

Chindai was not wrong about that, the mounted warriors were starting to assemble, and that meant it was his time to ride as well. He went to his horse and took his place in the saddle. The beast performed marvelously, he took it to the front, where he was joined moments later by Khava and Ryla on either side, and Subot to his far right.

The brief interlude had begun to fade when Chindai took his place, and it had only accelerated when the other leaders did the same, within minutes, there were one thousand riders in front of them.

"We ride for the Skinned Horse tribe, when we go, we will be joined by the Dead Eagle tribe. Once they come together with us, I want you to fight three abreast by tribe, let it be said that as we became one tribe today, we fought as one tribe today, not apart, not mere allies. A single tribe, united forever!" Chindai shouted as he stood up in his saddle so he could be seen by all.

"When we close for battle, know that all that you have heard is true, these mounts will never tire, they will never weaken, they will not respond to fear, only to command. Be as brave as your horses, embrace no false courage, fight like the sparrow against the raven, strike and withdraw, strike and withdraw, they cannot chase you, they cannot tire you, and most of all…" Silent eyes were glued to him as he held up his bow, "They cannot escape you!" He shouted firmly, fierce faces met him as he wheeled his horse about, "Now ride with me!" He shouted and spurred the horse on.

A horse could normally only hold a pace like this for mere minutes, they tore over the ground like a bush fire in high summer. Within an hour and a half, another five hundred riders moving at equal speed in front, swerved to intercept them, the Dead Eagles had come, there was no mistaking it as no other could possibly have mounts that could move this way.

Whoops and hollers and waves greeted the oncoming host, and room was made by the greatest horse people in the known world, they seamlessly made space for the ranks to fill, and the thousand became fifteen hundred, riding to face seven and a half times their number at least, and fully expecting victory.

Aura and Mare's location was not known to Chindai, they hadn't given their intentions, and as they hadn't said, he thought it best not to ask. Whatever those intentions were, he doubted it was betrayal, they had enough power by themselves that schemes were a waste of time, and neither seemed to care to waste time. Also, they had kept their word thus far, and on the plains, a horse, bow, and a good name were the only things one could rely upon for safety.

It took time, even with those mounts, to reach the encampment, and just beyond where they would come into detectable range, Chindai called a halt. He bade every man and woman drink water, he had every one of them check their weapons one more time, he had each of them step off their horses and stretch for a moment, and he bade them to have one final snack before they move, every advantage, no matter how small, could save a life.

It was a brief halt, a mere five minutes, when the portal he was now uncomfortably familiar with opened, and from outside of it came a monster with powerful, wise eyes, a snake for a tail, and razor claws in addition to a very tough looking thick hide.

Atop that monster sat the twins. "What is that?" Chindai asked with awe.

"This one is Hamsuke, she has come to fight beside you she has. In service to my master I am."

"You can speak." Ryla said softly, "May this humble warrior of the plains touch your fur, she is awed by your beauty and your majesty."

Hamsuke preened. "Touch me you can, but little time I am told we have."

Ryla and Khava both took advantage of the permission and patted her slowly with childish smiles on their faces as she preened and looked upwards in a 'noble' pose.

"That's enough, Hamsuke." Aura said firmly, "We've got work to do, you want to please Lord Ainz, don't you?" She asked.

"AH! Yes, please him I will, good service will I perform today." She said confidently.

"Then let's go." Chindai said, and as Hamsuke moved to the side of the formation, he spurred his mount forward, followed by the rest of the formation, which spread out in double lines to increase the perception of their numbers.

The Skinned Horses were unprepared for a surprise attack, they were the preeminent power in the area, and had not prepared for the possibility that anyone might attempt to challenge them so soon after having achieved that status.

"Loose!" Chindai called as soon as they were within range, and arrows flew from quivers, high in the air they went in a deadly arc, and down they came, piercing flesh and drawing screams of agony that would not stop, screams of agony that were cut short, and no screams at all from those who did not know that they had been hit and killed, they only fell like puppets with their strings cut.

Their shock and horror did not last however, they were a warrior people of the plains, and never far from weapons or horses. So they rushed to their mounts and the horn blew to call for defense, they were also many, and Chindai's new united tribe was still fielding very few. Were it not for the monsters, three of them as he now realized beyond doubt, and their horses of the Everplains, victory would have been inconceivable.

Yet this was going to make it easy.

They wheeled around and rushed away from the camp, the angry tribe sent its horsemen out, only for Hamsuke and the twins to charge the center, bowling many over as her tail lashed out left and right. Aura took out her bow and peppered the line with arrows, killing a dozen with every shot, before the arrow buried itself in the ground. Mare swung his staff with practiced ease and brains were dashed like eggs upon rocks.

Most of the formation ignored this 'single' foe to charge the bulk, not realizing just how bad their situation was. More were charging out to join the fray, while Hamsuke and his riders pursued the oblivious pursuers after having obliterated those they encountered first.

Thunder echoed from the ground as Chindai's united forces moved like fish through water. This was their element, and though it was also the element of the Skinned Horse tribe… Chindai's warriors were now as sharks, and these were… something less.

Arrows peppered the ranks of their enemies. Their horses simply could not keep up. Curses began to echo up and down the ranks of the opposition, followed by horror and terror as Hamsuke crashed into another bunched up group and they realized the first one had failed to stop the monster or its riders.

Taking advantage of this, Chindai wheeled his forces around and outflanked the first one. At his left and right, Khava and Ryla rode sitting high in the saddle, their bows drew and loosed with a constant rhythm born of countless hours of training. His own was no different in that respect, they controlled their mounts with the pressure of their thighs, freeing their hands for the work of slaughter.

It was ten minutes into the fight before the Skinned Horse tribe leaders realized there was more to this than a common ambush by a crazed, desperate, outnumbered tribal leader.

Half his arrows had been expended by his count, which to Chindai meant that the rest of his people were down to similar, if not identical numbers. They had slain almost three times their number and had suffered minimal losses in return. As he drew closer, an arrow came for him, it struck Chindai hard in his chest. The blow hurt, but he looked down, the arrow wasn't there, it had bounced off his armor as if it had been a rock thrown by a child. He smiled, such a blow would have ended his life were he wearing the light leather armor that served for those waging war on the plains.

His wife and wife to be saw him respond to the blow, he was sure of that, their keen eyes might even have seen the arrow, but when they saw he was unharmed, they smiled predatory smiles, more arrows flew from his numbers, they were running circles around the Skinned Horses, in the most literal sense, there was simply no way for the defenders to catch them, and when they slowed, they were either crashed into by the monster and crushed by its tail, killed in numbers by the devastating magic bow, or annihilated by what 'appeared' to be little more than a cross dressing boy with a stick.

It was a surreal, impossible experience, and yet it was happening and the Skinned horses were growing frantic, those outside the walls desperately rushed back to them. There were far fewer than what the fight had begun with.

"Hamsuke! The gate! The gate!" Chindai shouted, drawing the beast's eye, he put away his bow and drew his sword, pointing to the closing entrance as the few remaining Skinned Horse warriors outside the barrier made their way within.

Aura spurred Hamsuke forward as fast as the beast could move. She was rapidly being caught up with by Chindai's riders, but stayed ahead long enough to fling herself forward and bring the barrier crashing down and flying inwards. The wood that protected them had now become splintered projectiles flying out to injure them, and through the gap poured the fifteen hundred horses of the united tribal army.

The undead mounts were stronger, faster, and felt no pain. So the usual way of taking out men on horseback simply did not work, and the efforts in training and practice under the guidance of Theocracy agents that had helped them defeat the former power, now served to work against them as they did all the wrong things, and that usually leading to a quick end with an undead hoof to the head, if not being outright trampled while trying in futility to raise a spear wall. Here and there someone thrust a spear into a gap in armor, or a stray arrow found a mark in the eye or face or throat, but it was readily apparent that as they closed with this enemy, it was not a battle.

It was a massacre.

The massive tribe was falling in on itself in their efforts to escape. Women, children, the elderly, all ran screaming for their lives or fell on their faces in surrender when it was called for. They had reached the center of the camp, and some few warriors had chosen to make a stand there. Chindai reached to his chest and took up a horn, and blew it loudly three times, and gradually his fighters halted their advance.

Formations solidified opposite to the place of the final stand.

"You are the chief of the Skinned Horse tribe." He said, pointing his sword at the behemoth in the center.

"I am." He said in a deep, fearless, booming voice. He had scars all over his body from countless fights, and his eyes showed that there was not an ounce of fear living in his body.

"Not anymore." Chindai said. "You will surrender now, you have betrayed the dark elves of the plains by becoming the lapdogs of the Slane Theocracy. They have used us, abused us, manipulated our many tribes for century after century, and that cycle is ending. The Dark Elves are uniting, we will become one nation and one people, and that nation and that people have no use for those who would turn against it. Submit, and your life will be spared, but you will be chief no more. Your people will be spared, nobody else will have to die."

"And if I don't?" He asked.

"Then you die here by the hand of Chindai of the Golden Arrow tribe, and your people will be absorbed into my own. Your death will also buy their forgiveness just as well." Chindai said with ice in his voice.

Khava looked over at Ryla. She silently mouthed the words, 'watch this'.

The huge elf took out two swords.

He didn't even dignify the offer with an answer, he approached with heavy steps, and Chindai came down from his horse with only a sword in hand.

The behemoth swung both blades together at the center of Chindai's body, only to gape in shocked surprise as the chief of the Golden Arrow Tribe leapt over him like an acrobat with his back over the blades to then flip backwards twice more out of reach.

"Big, not fast." He said mockingly to the dual wielding brute.

"I'll show you fast!" The behemoth shouted and rushed towards Chindai just after the taunt.

He did not keep his promise, Chindai moved like a river in flood, flowing around the heavy blow, spinning low behind him and catching the brute behind the knee. He shot to his feet, lifting up and flinging the behemoth heels up over his head and down on his back.

His sword flashed out and he cut the brute along the length of his arm, the blood ran down the limb and he dropped that sword when his fingers spasmed. Pained or not however, he was a dark elf of the plains, a fearless one, so with the sword he still held he brought his arm up and attempted to cut Chindai across his body right where the armor stopped. It too failed in the face of the nimble chief. Chindai flipped backwards with ease and said, "Careful there, you almost cut me where it would really piss off my wives." He grinned at his humor, and rushed back in as the brute started to rise. He hit the behemoth hard in his head with a knee, knocking him down to his back again, and no sooner than he'd passed him, he dug his heels into the ground there he turned, and with a single step back brought himself forward to the giant of a dark elf with one foot next to his head.

He came down hard in a kneeling position, bringing the tip of his sword straight into the huge dark elf chieftain's throat, creating a posture that was not at all dissimilar to a knight swearing service, only that this was the service of finishing a foe.

The dark elf chief gurgled and twitched and, to the eternal credit of his warrior spirit, still tried to rise to fight onwards, but while the spirit was willing, the body was dead.

Chindai stood slowly, he wasn't even breathing hard. He walked to the space between the last of who called themselves 'The Skinned Horse Tribe' and his own people, they who had become one. He eyed the stunned, disbelieving warriors who just saw their invincible chief fall with apparent ease. A mere two hours ago they were 'the' most powerful people of the plains, but now… they could very well be exterminated and they felt the gaze of death fall on their ranks.

"Who else?!" He called out for a challenger. There were no apparent takers. "Who still stands on the count of three is a challenger, who kneels has surrendered and will live!" He shouted out.

"One!" He bellowed, none went to their knees.

"Two!" He yelled again, and none went to their knees.

"Th-" he began to say, and there stood no one on their feet. The Skinned Horses who were not dead on their backs, were alive on their knees.

Aura smiled with satisfaction. The fight was over.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	9. The Skinned Horses

_…The Skinned Horse Camp..._

Chindai raised his sword, his horsemen, those still in the saddle, those on their feet, those barely able to rise, even those who lay dying on the ground, cheered. "Chindai! Chindai! Chindai!"

Khava looked over to Ryla with a look that clearly said, "Told you." The dark elf woman of the Dead Eagles was looking more than a little impressed by the already impressive Chindai. Ryla licked her lips as she looked at Khava. The women shared a wink as the cries of victory echoed like the thunder of hooves over the ground. But Chindai was not done.

He approached the body of the defeated chief, most of his neck had already been severed, but he required the entire head. He swung his sword with brutal force, sending it rolling slightly away from the corpse. He picked it up by the hair and walked back to the center space between those who now knelt, many of whom were weeping bitterly at their fates or shaking in fear, if not for themselves, then for their loved ones.

He held the head up in front of his body at just above shoulder height, showing the head of their defeated chief, to his defeated people. "Be glad that I hold his head." Chindai said, drawing a lesson in the use of terror from Aura and Mare's 'forest'.

"His death has atoned for your crimes. You took aid from the Slane Theocracy, and they used you as a tool to slay your neighbors. You are not the first to be guilty of this, but you are going to be the last of the Dark Elves of the plains to ever be forgiven for the crime."

"What happens now?" An old elf said in a raspy voice.

"Now that you are forgiven, those who survive will be joining us." Chindai said.

"As slaves? Prisoners?" The old man asked.

To the shock of the Skinned Horse tribe, the chief of the Golden Arrow tribe shook his head.

"No." Chindai replied. "Your elders will be called grandfather and grandmother. Your adults will be brothers and sisters in arms, your daughters shall marry our sons, our sons shall marry your daughters, the Skinned Horse tribe is no more. But that does not mean your future has passed. There is only the One Tribe, of which we are all a part of. You will fight beside us, we will unite the plains, and a hundred thousand dark elves will fall upon the Slane Theocracy!" He shouted.

"You are not lapdogs! You are not puppets on strings! You are the riders of the plains, and it is time we broke out and rode the fucking world!" Chindai shouted vigorously. "Stand up, go and gather your things, all that you wish to bring with you, nothing of your belongings will be taken away. We ride for the great water source my tribe has traditionally used. Now hold your heads up, you are dark elves, not slaves, not dogs. You fought as well as you could, but we had the power of the Everplains behind us, the will of a veritable god with us, we could never have been defeated." He said loudly enough for the tribe of the defeated people to hear, they wondered at his words as they began to prepare themselves to move.

Chindai carried the head to the girl, Aura, he held it up to where she could reach it from Hamsuke's back.

"Lady Aura, I have brought victory to the cause, and now I propose an easy win that I hope will meet your approval." He said politely.

"Yes?" She asked dubiously.

"If this head is presented to the Red Flail tribe, I believe they can be persuaded to join us without a fight. Feelings of hatred for the Slane Theocracy and their puppets are powerful, and they were thrown from their power by this very chief, as a result of the aid the Theocracy gave to him. Offer the chief this head, show him one of these horses and promise his people enough for all of his warriors. Tell them all what you have told me, and I believe the Red Flail will present themselves to us without a fight. I may have to fight a duel for leadership over the whole, but I will fight that if I must." He said.

Aura thought it over, "Alright, we'll do that, you wait for us with your tribe." She said, "Might be a fun distraction anyway."

After a few minutes of giving them an idea of where the Red Flail tribe was, the trio of Aura, Mare, and Hamsuke were gone, and only dark elves...and Khava, remained on the plains again.

Getting the defeated moving proved relatively easy, their 'decreased numbers' left some questions about inheritance, but instructions to quickly annotate the belongings in question and throw them into a wagon designated for disputed goods was followed readily enough. The true question, would they be massacred or would they survive, had been answered to their favor and nobody among the Skinned Horse tribe was inclined to push their luck any further.

But while they prepared, a small number rode on ahead to return to the main, and growing, encampment, this included Ryla, Chindai, and Khava.

They rode back at breakneck speed, the horses given to them by the divine were a blessing they would not soon tire of. Their hair billowed in the wind, flying behind them as if it were trying to chase them down. Chindai's expression was one of overwhelming happiness, and he saw no reason not to show it.

In his face, Ryla saw the reason it was so easy for Khava to love him, leaving aside his prowess as a warrior and his courage at the front, he, though a man grown, still had a child's joyousness and freedom of expression. Most of those men Ryla knew had bodies bent with the weight of their burdens, their faces had grown haggard and often unsmiling when about their days of duty. His was not, and his presence was infectious, he was happy, so others were happy too, as if he was giving something of himself away in the process of just 'being himself'.

These were the thoughts that she was sure Khava had read within her, the woman was practical, brave, skilled, and perceptive. Had her husband not already been chief, she might have risen to the position instead, despite having come from the foot people who did not live in the saddle as the horse people of the plains did.

The ride was smooth and easy on their thunderous untiring mounts, and though at first, the sight of only three riding in return from the battle caused consternation and alarm, one look at Chindai's expression brought deep sighs of collective relief.

He put it straight to them without artifice, "We won." He shouted it out, and even the survivors of the White Arrow tribe were relieved, not because they were suddenly fond of their new lives, no, not that. Rather, it was more that if their captors were defeated in turn, it was very likely that the retribution would become a slaughter that took them with it. This was a common thing on the plains. When the warriors were killed, children became prisoners and surviving women who did not bear bow or sword fell into the hands of the victors with their little ones. The plains were not kind to the weak.

So in a way, the White Arrow's survivors found themselves in a favorable state of flux, they had been promised a place in the new tribe, and this had been delivered in a minor capacity already. Even the wives of the dead Bagan had been treated well. Chief Chindai had not sought their humiliation to break the will of the survivors, nor had they been deprived of food or drink. A cautious, very tentative optimism had begun to grow.

Now with his return, questions peppered them.

"Where are the rest?" Someone asked.

"How many did we lose?" Another added.

"Why are you back early?" Yet another asked.

Chindai held up his hands, "They are behind us, organizing the return, we have come back early to receive the Dead Eagle tribe when the rest of them get here, or more of their warriors if that should be the case. While I do not yet have a final count, we lost very few, the horses of the Everplain are matchless, we tired their warriors and their horses as if they were very small children or very old people, we rode round them and there was nothing they could do. They could not chase us, they could not run from us, our armor provided by the divine who favors our unity, saved many lives, including my own. There is now but one task I have for you." He said with a great, broad, noble smile on his face as they looked on questioningly.

"Prepare for my wedding to the chief of the Dead Eagle tribe." He said proudly.

Laughter and cheers met that instruction, and they began to set about their tasks.

"Husband, I will tend my duties to prepare for the wedding this evening." Khava said warmly.

"That will be fine, I will see to setting aside some part of our goods for the families of those who fell today. They must be properly honored for the sacrifice of father or mother, son or daughter, husband or wife." Chindai said, his voice taking on the serious air that made it impossible to forget that, for all his passion and childlike joy in his excesses, he was a chief who took his duty seriously.

"With which task should I assist?" Ryla asked, "I don't know how much longer it will be before my tribe arrives to join you, it seems to take several hours to provide five hundred of these amazing beasts, and without them, riding here would take days. Also, we still have our living ones." She added.

"Fair point, Khava, will you require help?" He asked his first wife.

"I won't refuse it, and we should spend more time together anyway, we will after all, be sisters by starlight." Khava replied, and offered out her hand to Ryla.

The dark elf dismounted her horse, took her hand, and they went off to tend to their task.

Once alone together in the conical topped tent of the chief, Ryla said straight away, "You were right. It was impressive. I've never seen anyone fight like that."

"I'm aware." Khava smiled a knowing smile for emphasis. "He fights like a dancer, always out of the way of anything that might hurt him, always coming within reach, but never quite touched. It is true what they say, great fighters are great lovers." She said as she gathered a handful of materials and offered them out to Ryla.

"These will go to those preparing the meal. Invite the surviving women of the White Arrow to help. I know Chindai, he will be pleased to see them integrated further into the tribe. Watch carefully for signs of someone vengeful, but otherwise we should treat them as we would treat any who were born among us, or who join us willingly." Khava said thoughtfully.

"Sensible. True unity, it boggles the mind." Ryla said breathlessly.

Khava gave a somber nod, "He told me once that he dreamt of it in his youth, when he was a boy he became separated from his tribe with a brother, to survive, they took to fishing at a river they'd found. On the third day they caught an uneven number of fish, and though Chindai offered to share it, his elder brother demanded the whole for himself as the right of the 'elder brother'. Chindai refused, they fought, and he killed his brother. A day later a rider from another tribe found him alone, and took him home to his parents who had thought him dead."

Ryla gasped in surprise, "He is lucky to be alive, children left alone on the plains are food for the beasts."

Khava's face remained somber as she gathered more materials from the tent, "Yes, but what he said that taught him was that the members of your tribe are not those you are born to, they are the people who help you when you need it. His own brother tried to kill him and take food he was willing to share, yet a stranger from another tribe saved his life and took him home. There isn't another chief on the plains as a result, who is better fit to see us come together as one."

Ryla did not argue the point, "Agreed, I might never have envisioned it, and now he was chosen by the servants of god, it is as if this impossible king knew his wish, and granted it.

"Perhaps he does, perhaps he does." Khava said with an optimistic smile. "That's everything we need from here, let's go get you married."

"After you… sister." Ryla said with a warm expression on her face as she opened the door for Khava.

Chindai dismounted and returned all three horses to be stowed away. As the women tended the infants, the men were to tend to the horses, as the wives tended to the marriages of the living, the chief tended to the care for the dead. This was the way of the horse people of the plains, and Chindai took his ways seriously, even in times of change.

By sunset the tribe and its 'new members' had begun to trickle in and wedding preparations were complete, those who had hunted that day found a spot rich with game, and with the great font seemingly providing endless water to this place, it was impossible to imagine running short.

A finger before the wedding was to begin, the now familiar gate opened, and the two dark elf children who had upended their world had returned, as luck would have it, they stepped out just as Chindai was walking past, and he immediately went to them and went down to one knee. He lowered his eyes and said, "Your gifts to us saved many of my people and your help is changing everything for the better. I am grateful to you as I am grateful to the divine one who has blessed us with the Everplains horses, and the weapons and armor which saved my life."

"I sense a 'but' there." Aura said bluntly. "Go ahead and spit it out."

Mare screwed up his face and clutched at his staff, "Sister, that's rude, he's being polite, you should be too!"

She let out a heavy sigh, "Fine, you're right. OK, yes you're welcome, this is what Lord Ainz wants, but I still sense a 'but' in that statement."

"You're perceptive my Lady. There is." He said and raised his head to look at them, "I have seen the city you took us to. No, I should clarify that, you seem not to know our ways. To say I have 'seen' your city, I mean that I have understood its inner worth, the power and utility of it all to make a better future. If you have seen our plains, you know that we have no cities like that. While I value the way of life we have built on the plains, I acknowledge the worth of the other way. Therefore I would ask the help of your master in building a city such as that for ourselves when the Slane Theocracy and its allies are overthrown. To that end, when the plains are united, I will offer my full fealty to your master in exchange for the prosperity he has given to others. Our horsemen will ever be at his call, our bows bend to point at his enemies, and for this we will ride the world. We have a term, one not used in many centuries, for the chief over all other chiefs, we know of its use only through legends, but we will offer him that title, and be his people forever."

"What's that?" Aura asked, mildly interested, the barest, tiniest hint of respect began to grow in her as he showed the sense to submit to the Sorcerer King.

"We call such a person, 'The Great Khan'." Chindai replied, "In all our stories and known history, there was only one, the one who led us to the plains and gave to us our way of life. I can think of no more fitting title for the one who opens the world to us, and gives us a new way in place of the old."

Mare clapped lightly with a smile on his face, Aura though, looked only passingly appreciative. Though he sensed this was simply part of her nature and not the dismissal he would have once thought it to be.

"As it happens, the submission of your people is one of those things I'm authorized to accept, I wasn't told I could promise you a city, but…" Aura scratched her head and looked at the ground as she thought things over, "well everywhere he's taken to ruling he has sent builders, planners, supplies for construction, teachers, everything you need to build a city, and except for a very few specific directives he leaves a lot up to the ones who live there. So if you want to build one of your own I don't see why not." Aura said.

"I-Is that enough?" Mare asked.

"It is." Chindai replied, "How did it go with the Red Flail tribe?" He asked.

"Fine, their chief was very happy with the present, you're smarter than you look." Aura said in passing, "Anyway we promised them horses, a united plains, and we told them how easily you killed that guy. Then we showed him E-Rantel for good measure, and he's sold. He's on his way here, him and his entire tribe. There is one problem though." She said.

"What's that?" Chindai asked.

"Well, you know how the Slane Theocracy has agents all over the place?" She asked.

"Yes." He said in a grim tone of voice.

"Yeah, well word of what's been happening here has apparently gotten out, apparently word spreads fast on the plains." Aura said thoughtfully.

Chindai laughed, "Yes, rumors ride the wind like we do horses."

"Well some of it is good, apparently other, smaller tribes are coming this way too, some of them friendly to the Red Flail, some of them friendly to the Dead Eagle, some former enemies of the White Arrow, and some friendly to the Black Club. So… we're probably going to use a lot more horses than we first thought." She said.

"That doesn't sound bad…" Chindai replied hesitantly.

"Well no, that isn't the problem, see while a bunch of tribes are coming your way to join you… there are a bunch of others who have been, I guess you'd say 'riding' with the Slane Theocracy, for a long time, and they're going the other way. They don't want to see things change, they like the disunity. Stupid." She snorted dismissively and folded her arms, Mare did not correct or chastise her for that assessment.

"How many?" Chindai asked.

"Well, by our count, which may be off by just a bit, you'll have about fifty thousand warriors in a few days, we're going to speed it up by using the gate to move them here faster. Our master says 'the gloves are off' so we can use any magic we want if it gets things done."

"How many are going to fight us?" He asked softly.

"About that many, maybe a few less, maybe a few more, doesn't matter." She said.

"Doesn't matter?" He asked, "That is a… bold assessment."

"Well, you'll have help." Aura's voice was vicious, Chindai could only smile at that.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	10. E Pluribus Unum

_...Golden Arrow Encampment…_

The wedding was an enormous affair, and Chindai ordered every cask of ale opened. The beer of the Understone Empire was highly prized, but even more so was a brand called 'Three Legged Dwarf' purportedly from the mountains much farther away. They didn't have a lot of it, so some was reserved for the ones to be married, while the rest was made available on a first come, first serve basis.

The clothes they wore had some variation to them. The standard leather had not gone away, but on this occasion, strips of dyed cloth were sewn in to various places in a bewildering array of patterns, some had added precious stones, others feathers from various birds. Such decorations might be thought of as vanity, but it wasn't.

Instead, these patterns were the silent signals of 'availability' showing accomplishments, station, and more. In the young men it showed to the young women what their worth and potential might be, while the decorations of the young women included such silent indicators as three feathers pointing down indicating that their mothers had birthed three girl children, or three pointing up indicating they had birthed three boys. To the young man desiring a family and children, these were appealing decorations. One could move through the mingling tribes and know, without even speaking, whether there was at least some potential compatibility. This, combined with copious quantities of alcohol and very encouraging elders who wanted to see grandchildren before the plains claimed their bones, often meant that one big wedding was an enormous blessing.

After all, it not only typically spawned many others. Large weddings held by chiefs often heralded a boom in the children in the following spring and summer months, when the chances of survival were highest.

Chindai honored that tradition greatly, before all the tribe he stood, presenting his back, and his wife Khava, and wife to be, Ryla, added new beads to his long hair to mark his new victories. They did this cooperatively, reflecting their shared status, and they bound the knot together.

As all this was happening, 'gate' openings became alarmingly routine as Aura and Mare worked to bring more and more to the gathering site. There were many, many small tribes on the plains. Some as few as two or three families, some even reduced to one after a terrible loss. There were also a number of medium sized tribes, these had several thousand members made up of dozens of families, and then there were the largest tribes, with tens of thousands divided into numerous smaller groups that only truly came together for a single great conflict. Chindai had defeated one such group with a fraction of their numbers.

Now his fame was spreading like wildfire, as was his message of unity, weapons of the gods, and the rumors of having the horses of the afterlife given by a god.

A consequence of these constant arrivals was an ever increasing number of lately anticipated guests, such that as the hour drew closer to the moment he would trade vows, he feared running out of alcohol.

In a quiet moment after a gate opened, he approached Mare. "Excuse me, my Lord." He said and crouched down to speak to the beautiful monster.

"Y-Yes?" He asked.

"While I am grateful for your help, there is a small matter of great concern to me." Chindai said delicately.

"W-What is it?" Mare asked as he brought his hands together in front of him and clutched at his staff.

"Well, so many are arriving and joining the wedding party that I fear my stores of alcohol might not be enough. Running out of alcohol is considered a sign of great poverty, it is a very bad sign to those who would think of joining our cause. I don't want to ask you to stop bringing them but…"

"I-I know!" Mare said excitedly, "I-I'm not supposed to stop b-bringing people, s-sister will get mad. B-But what if I go have some alcohol b-brought here, it'll b-be quick." Mare said, obviously glad to have a problem that was easy to solve.

Chindai grinned and slowly, carefully put his hand on Mare's shoulder. "Thank you, Mare. I can see why your god places so very much of his faith in you, I'm sure he's proud to have your service, you're an enormous help."

He wasn't sure at first whether it was a good idea to touch the tiny beautiful monster child, but as he spoke, he sensed he'd done everything right. Mare actually beamed with happiness at the praise. Mentioning his master had proved to be especially sagacious, and in some small way, he felt like he might have gained some positive favor in the eyes of the terrifyingly powerful little being.

Mare was gone a moment later, but before Chindai could start to worry, within a few minutes, undead horses came through yet another gate, just outside the walls, and they were pulling several connected wagons loaded high with enormous barrels.

Mare sat atop the wagon and waved to Chindai with a grin. "I-I'm back! I-Is this enough?!" He shouted.

Chindai walked over and slapped one of the barrels in satisfaction and let out a deep, satisfied laugh. "Yes, that'll do it!"

It was the single largest wedding the plains had seen since their settlement. Tribes that had never heard of one another now mingled freely. Tribes that had not seen one another in decades, renewed old ties. Friendships between grandfathers that had only stories to tell their children of a friend they had in their youth, could now show their old companion off, with occasional roughhousing to pretend they were still as young as they had been when they last met.

Weddings were always a good omen, weddings with copious amounts of alcohol were better omens, weddings with powerful battle winning chiefs who had weapons and horses from the gods who were marrying another chief… that was the best omen.

Finally the hour came, the music stopped and the bonfire was lit. Everyone present had added something to the flame, a strip of cloth, a piece of wood, the dung of an animal, or even particularly strong alcohol if one was feeling foolish enough to waste it. But everybody of the thousands present, walked to the place of the flame and cast something into it before returning beyond it to form a great circle.

Silence, save for the occasional cry of an infant, the nickering of a horse, the sparks and crackling of the flame, was the rule. Ryla stood beside Chindai, and Khava took her place in front. As first wife, it was her duty and her honor to perform their vows. With her tribe gated in to save time waiting on them, they often jostled for position, and not a few climbed onto wagons to get a better view of the wedding of the Dead Eagle chieftain.

"Ryla of the Dead Eagle tribe, you seek union with Chindai of the Golden Arrow tribe, have you the permission of his first wife through negotiation to take your place at his left hand?" Khava asked. As 'she' was first wife, there was no question of this, but formalities must be upheld lest gossip spread.

"I have. She welcomes me as a sister, and I will greet her in kind." Ryla responded.

"Will you brave battle beside him on the plains, or in the birthing tents to bring heirs to your names?" Khava asked.

"Without fail I will, those or any trial." Ryla answered.

"Chindai, will you honor your new bride as your old, and your old as your new?" Khava intoned.

"I will." He said proudly.

"Will you divide your love between them?" She asked.

"No, I will multiply it as we seek to multiply all blessings." He intoned.

"Will you stand beside her in all battles, in blood, in birth, until the plains claim you?" She asked.

"I will, I swear it." He said with pride.

The bonfire was high now.

"Then brave the flames, pass through as one, and you will be one." She said, and stepped aside.

Ryla and Chindai took one look at each other, counted to three, clasped hands firmly, and charged the bonfire, just at the edge, they launched themselves, flying like birds on the wing through the fire, they landed safely on the other side, their hands still clasped tight as each strove to secure the other. They held those clasped hands high, and walked once around the flames to show the unbroken grip, then they embraced before the flames, and claimed one another's lips in an impassioned kiss to the yelps and howls and cheers of the many attending tribes.

Mare and Aura watched from atop the wine casks as all this took place

"S-Sister, you're face is funny, is something w-wrong?" Mare asked nervously.

Aura rested her forearms on her thighs and clasped her hands together in front of her.

"No, nothing, just thinking." Aura said casually.

"W-What?" Mare asked.

"Well, we're impossibly powerful, so fighting isn't even fighting for us. It is a chore, no different than taking a bath, only the water is red. But these things," she gestured to the gathering inside the gate, "they fight, but they die so easily, sometimes they fail and fall, yet they keep trying, they keep getting back up. Some of them show the sense to properly honor Lord Ainz, even without being created knowing they should."

"Y-Yes, so?" Mare asked.

"Well, it's just, watching this, the way they light up the night to show that at least for a moment that they are alive before throwing themselves at a task knowing they don't have the power to ensure the victories that come to us so easily, I can't help but think…" She trailed off for a moment.

"Maybe they're not as boring as I thought." Aura said with a little smirk of amusement.

"M-Maybe." Mare said. "Th-That one that got married, h-he praised my service to Lord Ainz." Mare smiled happily at that.

"Did he?" Aura said with a slow nod. "Let's make sure that one lives. OK?"

"O-Okay." Mare said, and they went quiet while they watched the dark elves festive wedding. The attendees were all busy drinking, even those that had been taken as defeated people were given full status within the tribe and told they could seek unions, marriages, and so on without issue. It solved many potential issues in one blow, and put doubts to rest about the Golden Arrow chief's plans after his victory.

Victory out there however, was not on his mind. Khava embraced the new wife as a sister, then sent the pair off to conclude the union properly in the privacy of the tent they would now share. She would join them later, but a bride newly married should have at least those first few hours to herself and her husband alone.

All in all it was a celebratory affair, and left them all with many hangovers the following morning. Aura and Mare however, were quickly about their tasks as soon as the sun rose, they began gating in more and more small tribes, and more and more of the undead horses. When the Slane Theocracy won their 'crushing' victory against the false army and 'killed' almost forty thousand straw figures, they also took the lives of nearly all the horses. These in turn served quite well when retrieved to create undead mounts that they were equipping the Golden Arrow tribe with. Neither Aura nor Mare failed to appreciate the irony of the Slane Theocracy having done half the work for them.

So more and more were provided to the tribes, every few hours, another five hundred were given to riders to take into battle, and by noon meal there were tens of thousands of dark elves fulfilling their childhood dreams of having a horse that could ride forever.

That alone won many over to the source of it all, however it was only the chiefs who would learn the full story at first.

Chindai called for a general council, and the chiefs of tribes great and small came together in a circle outside. "You all know my goal. I want to end the tribal destruction that has plagued us for generations. I want to end the constant Theocracy interference that has always kept us weak. I want to end our confinement and let our children's children ride the world the way they should. As you are here, you must share my goals and I assume, come to swear yourselves to me."

"Show me your beads." A gruff looking dark elf said.

Chindai reached back and brought his long dark hair to the front of his body. He counted them off and explained each one.

"You win battles. That's good." He said. "But you're talking a lot about change, I came to hear you out, but I don't promise I'm with you." He said in a skeptical voice.

"I do." Chindai said bluntly. "But not everything is always good, just because it has always been so. I take great pride in our traditions, our way of life. I'm proud of all that we have done that few others could survive, let alone thrive following the herds and fighting over water as we have. This land has made us strong." His voice was proud and forceful, he took a deep breath and then continued.

"If I were to try to force you brother, you would try mightily to stop me, yet when a tradition is not working as it once did, do we bow to it? If we resist the pressure of the living, why do we bow or bend to pressure from the dead? The plains have claimed their lives, it is for us, us the living to make decisions now. Some things we can continue, others we cannot. And whether we like it or not, the world is changing around us." He let that sink in for a moment and then turned to the chief of the Red Flail tribe. "Vasha, did you visit the home of the god who gave us these horses?"

"I did." A somber voice from a slender but well toned dark elf male answered.

"Did they show you the map?" Chindai asked.

"They did." He answered again.

"Tell them what you saw." Chindai requested.

Vasha nodded mutely. "I saw the world is larger than we knew, and I saw the lands being taken over. The god who has provided these horses and magnificent weapons to us, is changing the world beyond the plains. He fights the Slane Theocracy, those who have 'traditionally' been allowed to manipulate us into killing each other over watering holes and hunting grounds. We know this king already rules the Abelion hills and what this has done to the slave trade. He is presently in the Understone Empire, and I am told they will be surrendering to him within the span of a week of his arrival. The Baharuth Empire yielded to him on the third day of his visit. E-Rantel gave in the day of his arrival. Soon he will bring down all his enemies, and our plains will be surrounded. He offers us wealth, prosperity, unity, knowledge, beauty, all in exchange for loyal service. And I remind all of you… he does not have to offer anything."

Chindai nodded, "Thank you. That is another point, he could have chosen to simply take the plains, yet he does not. His followers have treated us with honesty, kept every promise without fail. Who else has done this save we amongst ourselves? This is the time to embrace a change. If we do not do so now, even if we do unite, the plains will not be our freedom, they will be our prison at best, our graves at worst, and given a choice, I would see my children mount and ride the world."

It was a stark choice, but one the chiefs understood.

"What do you propose?" One of them asked.

"We all have unmarried young among us, my wedding's timing was convenient as it turns out, many bonds surely formed among our children of marrying age. I propose that we nurture those. Life on the plains can be short, and we will ride to battle within a day to face those gathering against us. Ironically they unite… for disunity." He wanted desperately to slap his palm to his face at their actions as he'd heard them.

"Tell them to form up in anticipation of death, before we ride to the largest battle in the history of the horse people. In this way, through them, we will forge a new tribe, one that is not Golden Arrow, nor White Arrow, nor Black Club, nor Dead Eagle, nor Red Flail, nor any other. We will be larger than a tribe, we will be a horde. And the riding of our band will shake the ground as thunder shakes the skies." Chindai said, his eyes glossed over as he saw the magnificent vision of it pass before his eyes.

"A golden horde…" He said softly.

"The Golden Horde…" Voice after voice took up the term, it struck something in their hearts, and it became a chant, goosebumps formed on every arm and shaking took hold in every breast as the swell of power at the image Chindai had conjured up loomed with impossible magnificent beauty before their eyes. Khava and Ryla came close to him. They held on either side of his arm, wanting to draw him back from being lost within the vision, but not wanting that moment to end for themselves either.

Finally, he snapped out of it on his own, coming back to himself. His voice echoed over the plains with such tremendous power that it carried far beyond the circle of chiefs and their attending wives and advisors. "We will be a golden horde, and descend on those who have wronged us for hundreds of years! As our horses shake the world, so shall the Slane Theocracy shake with FEAR! No more will dark elf turn on his brother and say 'give me what is yours!' Instead we will turn to our brothers and sisters, and secure a common future, as one people, as one nation, we will shine like the sun, and Burn Kami Miyako DOWN! With the fire of our wrath!" Chindai's voice held the fury of centuries behind it, and when he stood, so too did all the others.

"Will you ride with me?!" He shouted.

The golden tan fists of every chief went to the air, and war cries split the sky.

Aura and Mare watched the exchange from a distance, it gave the chiefs space, but didn't halt their ability to observe. They didn't 'expect' any kind of betrayal at this point, but one could never be too careful. As it was, they were not displeased with the direction that things had gone. "Mare, want to give them a 'moment'?" Aura asked, bemused.

"O-OKAY sister." He said, and the clouds of the sky split, and a ray of light pierced through, just where Chindai stood, as if the heavens themselves acknowledged him.

"Tomorrow will be an interesting day." Aura said with a chilling, beautiful smile.

**AN: Thoughts?**


	11. Battle for the Plains

The hours passed quickly after that, and everybody knew they'd be riding. The chiefs of the various tribes spoke with the elders, and many of the young who had formed swift bonds in the passionate hours after the wedding of Chiefs Chindai and Ryla, were encouraged to deepen those bonds in what little time they had.

Some would not be parted, they would be riding together with bows and swords at the ready. They would deepen their bonds in the crucible of necessity and be bonded by blood and battle. There was no doubt that they were now living in a time of legends, and those who rode to war and performed well would gain life everlasting in song and story as the unification of the dark elf tribes slipped farther and farther into the past until it became as myth except to those few immortal beings that watched over it, or shepherded it into being.

It was a single day of rest, of ease, of… for many, passionate lovemaking of the sort that is only given to those who ride to conquer or die. The greatest shock was not that this unity occurred, but rather how truly it was meant. When those of the defeated tribes were offered mounts and given arms, their dignity was restored.

That evening Chindai went before the dark elf twins who he saw as servants of the master of the Everplains, and knelt at their feet. "Tomorrow morning we ride, do you know where they have gathered, or even, have they all gathered?" He asked.

"Yes, we know." Aura said as she leaned back on the wagon, "but they haven't quite all gathered yet, they'd need days for that, and we're not going to give it to them. You won't have to ride across the plains, my master says that the gloves are off, so we can do what we want if it wins, so we'll use a gate spell to move you to the battlefield, and we're going to help you win the fight ourselves as well. We won't do 'all' of it for you, this is after all, your future most of all, but we'll make sure that you have every advantage that you need." Aura said generously.

"Is he moving other armies around the same way? How could the theocracy stand against him for so long?" Chindai asked softly.

"No, that's different, in those places, well a lot of his allies… gah, I don't really want to say this, it's just not in my nature to praise much." She rubbed her eyes briefly with the palms of her hands and shook her head in annoyance.

"OK fine, the truth is you're already, as far as the usual ones we encounter go at least, very good fighters, many of the others are not. Former slaves, shattered countries, that kind of thing. For them, the long marches build toughness, offer time to train. And a lot of those armies are mixed units that came with a lot of biases. Our master doesn't want to just 'win' by stomping the life out of the Theocracy, he's using the war to unite everyone as one people, trolls, goblins, orcs, humans, elves, dwarves, vampires, everyone united in a common cause, so between the need to do that, and the need to prepare the weaker ones to win, well he's drawing it out. You're going to be doing something similar after all. When you win this, you'll take the new unified army and hit the Slane Theocracy, and have all your different tribes work together against a common enemy, that'll make sure you all bond together, and that those bonds stick." She said firmly.

"That make sense to you?" She asked with a little impatience.

"Yes, yes it did. Truly your master… our master, is wise beyond measure." Chindai said, impressed.

"Knowing that he is wise, is the beginning of wisdom." Aura said approvingly.

That night was a furtive one for Chindai and his wives as they enjoyed their common bonds, while each was confident that the following day would bring them victory and lasting fame long beyond the time when the plains that birthed them, called them home again. One could never know if that victory would include themselves among the survivors.

And so they struck against their mortality and their weakness with passionate embrace that stretched for hours beyond the time when candles burned down. The embers of their passion remained hot long after the last embers of the fire pot died and covered them in darkness. They saw by touch, and loved what they saw, until sleep took them for that little taste of death before they would awaken again.

When dawn broke, the work began. The common tasks of meal preparation went quickly enough, and as per the edicts of the chiefs, families mixed when they ate, others who went out to hunt, hunted in mixed parties, all work crossed tribal lines without exception.

Finally the most important tasks were underway, and those too old or too young or whose professions or maternal status prevented them from going to war, dressed and prepared the departing warriors in their battle attire. Some of them strung bows afresh, others packed small snacks or filled water skins or sharpened blades or fletched a few final arrows. Everyone did something.

And because everyone did something, the time to go was quickly reached, and a horde of tens of thousands, the single largest army ever to gather on the plains, was arrayed beyond the encampment.

Aura and Mare waited in front until Chindai approached them on horseback. "Where will we appear?" He asked.

"About a mile beyond their sight, we don't want you to 'trickle in' so as soon as you get there, form up again and then do what you need to do. We'll be following after, and work a few nightmarish surprises on them. Just get it started, and we'll handle our part." Aura said confidently

"G-Good luck! D-Do your best!" Mare said enthusiastically.

Chindai nodded from atop his horse and returned to his position.

"OK, open the gate. We're ready." He said.

The gate was opened, a whorling black of infinite void, and he rushed through it like it was nothing, he was followed quickly by his wives, then the other chiefs, and the newly christened 'Golden Horde' moved forward like a river whose dam had burst.

The thunder of hooves diminished as they disappeared, until no rider remained.

_...South Eastern Plains…_

"We're here." Chindai said, and as he came through he immediately held up a banner for the ranks to fall in on. The tribes were a jumble, one could not be told from another. Now they were a horde, and they were an angry one.

They lined themselves up and the pounding of the hooves rose and fell as more came through, only to stop in their position and be joined by more in turn.

When at last they were all together again, a process that did not go quickly, Chindai chose to address them.

"Today we fight, but not for one tribe, but to be one tribe, to unite all our people and end the constant weakness and strife that has plagued us for so many generations. Do not forget that you are not spending your life for a golden coin clutched in a dead man's hand, you are spending your life for a golden future!" He shouted, and the cheers were so loud that it alerted their enemies to his arrival. "Ride!" He shouted, wheeled his horse around, and spurred it onward.

His wives were beside him to left and right, and the chiefs had formed up behind him. They would be among the first in the fray. It took mere minutes on horses that did not tire, and as they crested the final hill they saw what lay before them a mere half mile away on open ground.

An army of some thirty thousand, which was fewer than themselves, but potent nonetheless. Dark elves ran hither and thither as they rushed to arm and horse themselves for the unexpected incursion. The expectation of days had become minutes.

No time was wasted, the horse people were born for this, on both sides. Chindai continued to move forward, as did his army. They swept wide along the wings, moving with single purpose. The rivals they had were clearly armed with Theocracy equipment, and as the first arrows were loosed, some fell, but with the thick armor forged by the theocracy, fewer fell than otherwise would have.

The Golden Horde's undead horses however, told the tale of the fight as their counterparts sought to pursue as Chindai's forces circled away, and sought to move to the rear of the enemy lines. The heavy armor offered better protection from arrows, however it also weighed down the very living horses, and pursuit was quickly recognized as impossible. Though they fired back at the larger Golden Horde, there were few who were in reach long enough to be struck. However arrows are limited, and quivers would empty sooner or later.

Behind the line, Aura and Mare walked out of the gate and looked down from the muddy, churned up hill. "They're certainly working hard, I guess." Aura said as she watched a few Golden Horde members become overconfident, get separated from the whole, and then cut to pieces when brought to close combat.

"Well, I guess we should do our part. Mare, call down some lightning, lets cut some Theocracy puppet strings." Aura said.

"A-Alright sister, b-but what will you do?" Mare asked.

Aura stroked her chin and thought the matter over. "Well I guess I could use my bow. I could probably kill a dozen or two per shot, hey where is that Chindai guy?" She asked.

"O-Over there." Mare said, pointing with his staff.

"Alright, got it, I suppose it couldn't hurt to maybe build up his legend a little. If there are piles of dead people everywhere he was known to be, he'll look even more fearsome and have more power here. Then I'll call for Hamsuke again and go help out a little, that should do it." She said, then sighed and drooped her shoulders. "I'm sure Lord Ainz would come up with something magnificent, but this'll have to do."

She took her bow out and nocked an arrow. She aimed for a group charging at Chindai, and her arrow struck at the same moment that Mare called down lightning from the skies. Arrows fired from her bow had a devastating effect on those they struck. A dozen or more would die with every shot as the arrow passed through multiple people before embedding itself into the soft earth.

The lightning called down by Mare hit like the hammer of Thor. Some died when it struck, others were electrocuted and flung back, stunned and trembling, when it hit the ground too close to them. Screams filled the air as the children of the plains watered the earth with dark elf blood. Only the fact that arrows were limited slowed the death toll, but the horses provided by the Sorcerer King's magic made it lopsided from the start, not to mention the improved weapons and armor.

After some time it was trivially easy for the Golden Horde to outmaneuver and outrun their opponents, and they used this overwhelming advantage to hit and run till the living horses almost collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

Finally it seemed the last arrows were emptied and the armies wheeled away from one another with practiced ease, but only one had horses tired to the point of breaking. Chindai felt the horse beneath like he felt his own blood pumping and his own heart beating, beneath its driving hooves he felt his connection to the plains that bore him, he stowed his bow and drew his sword, as he moved, so did his wives, as they moved, so did the chiefs, as the chief moved, so did the army. He was the linchpin on which the battle hung. They would come for him to break his lines, and it was their best chance. He knew it, his wives knew it, his friends knew it, his enemies knew it.

He looked beside him to his left and to his right. The heroes light was in his eyes as he raised his sword and lowered it again to the mass beyond him, he did not pause or flinch, his breathing increased, but he was not tired, there was no fear in his eyes nor fear in his bones nor fear in his flesh.

Somehow, as if told by the very god who gifted him his magnificent horse and armor and sword, he felt he could not die, but if he did, from his blood would spring new life for the Golden Horde, and all dark elves.

If that was the case, he could live with his death. The distance closed, in the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar monster, it was far away, but he smirked anyway, he was sure of at least one of the riders, he saw a whip lash out as if to loosen up. He smiled, this battle was already over, no matter what happened here.

His wives screamed like banshees, demonesses at his back as they took out swords of their own. He came on and in the eyes of the one against which he rode, he saw his victory, because in those eyes, he saw the tendrils of fear.

He bared his teeth in a predatory smile as they closed in, his sword flashed, a head flew. Then horses smashed into horses and the battle was joined up close, the rains were falling and washing blood from dark elf bodies. He was knocked from his horse by a hammer, but his flawless armor protected his body and he grabbed the handle with his free hand, pulling down the bearer, who had only a moment to look shocked when the man he'd struck did not die. Chindai moved like his life depended on it, and thrust his blade into the face of the hammer bearer, he could not see his people now, not clearly, save for his wives. It had become a chaotic melee fought in the churning pits of hell itself.

So much mud was churned up and cast about by darting feet and pounding hooves. It was gouged out and flung away as if they were trying to use battle as the means to literally dig their graves.

He was a target still and did not care. He saw everything as if it was in slow motion, as if he were possessed by the god of war, it was perhaps the finest fight of his life and it seemed as if that fight might last a lifetime by itself.

Finally, finally he felt the pulse of battle as if it were his own. None were coming near to him. Some threw spears, which he would either capture or avoid. He was covered in mud and blood and many were tiring around him, but he was blood drunk, like a berserker out of legend he sought new heads and new lives to end. In the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of the monster with the snake tail, and his people were stopping, standing. He went to an undead horse and mounted it.

He stood up, high in the saddle and looked over the field. The banners of the tribes who resisted his call were broken into splinters, some crooked and held aloft where they were jammed into the ground. Others were completely trampled and covered in mud, blood, and other less noble fluids.

They were running, their lines were broken. Every instinct he had said to spur on the horse he'd mounted, chase them down, and kill them all, but as he watched them scramble for their lives, some carrying the wounded, others going off unburdened, carrying not even their pride on their backs anymore, something happened in his beating heart, something he did not quite expect.

A sense of peace. The horror of the field as dark elves desperately clawed at the muck to get to some form of tentative safety. The screams of the dying calling for their mothers to come and care for them and take away the pain. He should not have felt peace here, anywhere but here.

But he was not there, not really. He saw the dream of his youth was finally within his reach. He sat like a man dazed, realizing that what he wanted could now be his, and what was his, was all of theirs. He snapped out of it a moment later as his wives approached on horseback and touched his shoulders.

"Are you alright?" Ryla asked. Her face was cut, as were both her arms, she was covered in much just as he was.

"Husband? Chindai?" Khava asked with concern. She knew his faraway looks, the look of a dreamer, a look she loved. But now was not the time for that, she squeezed his hand.

There was a broken arrow in her calf and several dozen more in her horse, she was bleeding from a cut over her eye that must have obscured her vision, as she paused to wipe it away.

Chindai came back to himself in that instant, he smiled at the women, "I live, so do you it seems. Might as well get to it." He said as the pounding of his heart began to ease.

He lifted his sword and shouted, the shout was picked up a thousand times, and a thousand more, and a thousand more, like ripples from a rock thrown into tranquil waters, it spread to all of the Golden Horde.

The monster known as Hamsuke found him easily enough, and when it stopped, he dismounted from his horse and knelt before the beast and the rider atop it.

"Not bad, compared to what I usually see." Aura said smugly. Given his handy defeat by her younger brother, he wasn't going to argue the point, and from her, that might be high praise.

"Thank you, Lady Aura." He said proudly as he lowered his eyes.

"What now?" She asked.

"We send emissaries to the survivors, tell them they can collect their dead, tell them to surrender, and we'll spare their lives and bring them into our army." Chindai said firmly.

"Tell you what, why don't we do that, if there are any Slane Theocracy stooges still there, we can take care of them. You should expect their surrenders soon. We're almost out of time here and need to speed things up." She said impatiently.

"Out of time?" He asked. "Will you be leaving? I assumed you intended to stay after all this to rule, you are of noble birth, you gave us this victory far more than I." Chindai asked with surprise.

"No, this is your land, these are your people. My brother and I have our own jobs to do back home. You'll rule the dark elves, our master will just make sure you do a damn good job of it. He likes peace, stability, and prosperity, and if you can manage all three, you'll keep the job, if you can't… well you won't." She grinned broadly and he felt a very dark meaning behind that, which made him shudder as battle had not.

"I will accept the charge." He said.

"You called my master the 'Great Khan', right?" She asked.

"Yes." He said simply.

"Well, guess that would make you a Khan, wouldn't it, seems like a kind of king, and the dark elves will finally be a kingdom, right?" She asked almost curiously.

"Chindai… Khan of the Golden Horde… I like the sound of that." Khava said.

"Same here." Ryla said as she approached and whispered softly to his ear as she caressed it with the tips of her fingers, "Accept the title… and we'll call you that tonight…" she said in a dusky, hungry voice.

Chindai smiled broadly the way only a man who knows his night will be a great one can.

"I accept it." He said to Lady Aura.

"Now if you're doing that, we have to tally the dead, and we'll send our emissaries out to the smaller tribes that didn't join a side, and those who were on their way to join the wrong one. When they learn of the defeat, I think they'll give way without further struggle." Chindai said.

"Fine." Aura said, and Mare floated over and landed on Hamsuke's back behind her.

"You fight well, Hamsuke." Chindai said. "A true warrior, you will always be welcome, should you ever revisit us."

"Thank you Hamsuke does, praise in return you deserve, look forward to it I will." Hamsuke said and turned around to ride off in pursuit of the fleeing remnants.

"Alright my beloveds, we have our own tasks to perform, for both the living and the dead alike. Let's move." Chindai said as he got to his feet, returned to his horse, and the trio rode away to tend to the fruits of victory.

**AN: Thoughts? :)**


	12. Epilogue

Dark Plains

Chapter 12

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

The aftermath of the battle for the future of the Dark Elves came on as quickly as the battle itself. Chindai's emissaries were riding out to the smaller opposing tribes even as the wounded were being treated. Nobody had ever seen so many injured in one place before. Poultices were being produced as fast as hands could move to make them.

Bandages were plentiful, and mages exhausted themselves casting healing spells. Many of the worst injured, died anyway, due to the shortage of those available to restore them. However, they did the best they could with what they had, and when Aura and Mare returned with emissaries of the defeated offering to surrender, the faces of those emissaries fell to shock when they saw that their own wounded were being treated as well, rather than simply executed

The three representatives of the surviving adversaries knelt to Chindai and offered him their bows with their heads lowered. To surrender the bow on the plains was as good as surrendering life and liberty, but the Dark Elf who would be Khan saw an opportunity to further his goals.

He looked down at them, his wives and other chiefs behind him, his army looking on. He laid his hand on their heads one by one, repeating each time. "Raise your head."

When they did, he saw they still bore the wounds of battle on their bodies, and he looked over his shoulder to Khava. "Khava, have the healers tended to the worst of the wounded? Can we spare one?" He asked.

She nodded. "We can."

"Bring one." Chindai said.

She was gone and back again in a few minutes, and the healing mage approached.

"Heal their wounds please." Chindai said in a voice that was not a request.

His army watched all this take place, everybody knew what healing magic was when they saw it.

When their wounds were gone, they looked to him in confusion.

"I will accept that I have won this battle, I will accept your surrender. I will not accept your bows. Stand up, and use them in service to a new Dark Elf Kingdom, a nation on par with all nations. As I have had your wounds healed today, you must swear your oath on your life to heal all wounds between the victor and the vanquished, so that in the generations to come, my victory today will be a victory that all can call their own."

They slowly, disbelievingly, returned their bows to their backs.

"I don't know what to say." A battered behemoth of a Dark Elf said in a shaking voice. "You treat the wounded among those you sought to kill, who sought to kill you, you heal our wounds and let us rise and keep our bows, your emissaries said you promised our lives would remain… why… why are you doing this?" His voice was incredulous, in other conditions it might have been insulting, but there was a tint of awe, almost reverence, held within.

"I am to be Khan over the Dark Elf tribes, and I aim to make us a nation, that makes you my people, my brothers, my children and my family, you were all wrong to oppose me, but if I take the path of the past, I cannot make a new future, and worse, you will have been right to oppose me." Chindai said.

"When I was a boy, my brother tried to end my life over a fish. When I was alone, having slain him instead, a stranger saved me and returned me to my parents. That taught me much about what it is to be a people, and it is not to be blood or to be brothers, it is to act as if we are, and that is all a nation is, a large population where everyone acts like every other's life matters. Our neighbors to the south have toyed with us for centuries to keep us weak and killing each other. I will make us strong, I will make them pay, and I will make us more than we were. Will you now join me by choice?" Chindai said in a noble voice that Ryla and Khava wondered if he'd really always had.

"I should never have barred your way." The brute of a man said. The other pair seemed equally chastened, but did not look to have the power to muster words. They clasped arms together under the silent observation of the army that struggled to comprehend what they were seeing.

"Go, bring your people back, we will honor the dead together, we will unite what little is not part of the land, and we will see those who played us for fools, pay a steep price for their folly." Chindai said confidently.

The three representatives bowed in mute acceptance and departed.

"Husband, Chindai, can it really work?" Khava asked softly.

"Good question." Chindai replied as he turned to her and clasped her hands. "But we'll make it work, somehow."

"I think riding that way together will make it work." Ryla said with a gleeful smile as she touched their shoulders and nodded in the southern direction.

Predatory smiles went all around as they got back on their mounts.

"You've done a great service for my people." Chindai said to the dark elf twins. "I will never forget it, my body is yours as much as it belongs to our master. When will I get a chance to meet him? I would very much like to swear my oath officially, plus… I'd like to ask him about that wave that passed through here awhile ago, it terrified the entire plains, I was hoping he would have some knowledge of what to do about it."

Aura started to laugh. He looked at her with doubt and uncertainty.

"S-Sister!" Mare said with annoyance.

Aura waved her hand to put him on hold until she could stop herself.

"OK, first thing, he'll probably come through here with the mountain breaker, Gargantua. So you may get the chance then. Second thing, that wave? That was our master. He was read a report of the brutality and the abuses and the many violations of the Draconic Accords, the agreement meant to guide the war. When he learned of them all, he lost control of his wrath and his power propelled it out. I didn't know it had gone this far… but I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Aura said with a proud smile.

Chindai swallowed hard. "That… was…"

"A fragment of his power. He usually holds himself in check, but after all the things they'd done?" Aura held her hands out, "Well, he's very thorough, even fanatical, about protecting his people. He sees those who serve him as his children I guess, even if they're not special the way us created ones are, but the lengths he'll go to over even them? Let's just say you should keep that in mind as you make your decisions." Aura said matter of factly as she described his world shattering power.

"He truly is a god. Lord of the Everplains, come to the world…" He muttered softly with reverential awe.

"Well we call him the god of death, but hey, lots of people have called him god of different things. His pope, the leader of his religion, calls him the god of justice, she was his first worshiper from outside our home, and… I guess she's kind of an interesting one." Aura added.

"I would like to meet this one." Chindai said thoughtfully.

"Wear good underwear, most people near shit themselves." Aura snickered.

"Is she a giant? A monster of some kind?" He asked with interest.

"No, just a human girl, you might have heard her name, if not her title. Her name is Neia Baraja." Aura said.

"I've heard of her." Khava said, "Rumors about a mad eyed archer who killed a legendary demihuman and took his armor. Figured they were just stories."

"Judge for yourself when she comes this way." Aura said smugly.

"Will you stay for the ceremony?" Ryla asked.

"C-Ceremony?" Mare asked.

"Yes, it won't take long to bring the other tribes together, not with these mounts to carry word or break the last resistance. I figure in a few days we can officially call my husband a Khan of the plains, it would be appreciated if you could attend as the representatives of the Sorcerer King." Ryla said with a warm smile.

"I suppose." Aura said casually.

_...Golden Horde Encampment…_

The next two days went quickly. Emissaries came from other tribes offering submission to the new one, and this was always with a condition of integration. Chindai had the tribal ties broken apart without compromise. Hunters who had only ever hunted with those they grew up with, now found themselves with new ones. Women who had never thought they would mate beyond their tribe, found themselves being courted by males of numerous others.

The latter proved least unwelcome from either perspective, as the stranger of unknown beauty always bears the flavor of the exotic. The undead mounts or 'Horses of the Everplains' were liberally distributed, and those chiefs who were the most ardent supporters of Chindai's vision were given many a hard task in ensuring people understood that nobody who was captured was to be treated any other way than as if they were a part of the Golden Horde.

The defeated and the victor were gathered together without arms to bury the dead, and those who passed on both sides were buried together. Some fifteen thousand fell in all. Three thousand from Chindai's ranks, the rest from among his enemies. It was low compared to what he feared for the largest clash the plains had ever known, but the respectful treatment of the dead and the breaking out of wine and beer to toast to the names of all who fought, no matter what side it had been for, went a long way towards healing any rifts. The mandate that healing be provided to both, went a long way as well.

Aura and Mare would later inform him that there were agitators of the Slane Theocracy, as expected, who had made all manner of promises, none of which they had the power to actually keep, and others were simply paying tribes outright for the service of fighting against Chindai's growing military power.

Those who had intended to fight for wealth, simply kept the wealth when it was obvious that there was no way to fight on after they missed the climactic battle. Then they switched sides, sometimes making tribute of part of the payment as a way to atone for being on the 'wrong side', in this way the Slane Theocracy greatly added to the war chest of the new Dark Elf Kingdom.

At the end of the second day Chindai sat on a throne made of horse bones and furs. It was elaborate, as far as the unwieldy make of dark elf workmanship went, but it represented the horse people perfectly, and every part came from a different tribe. His throne sat on a platform where all could see him, tens of thousands of tribesmen and women were in attendance.

For this occasion, the first that was outside the realm of myth, he was given a gift. A rune crafted circlet of gold, behind the throne stood his wives, and beside his wives stood Mare and Aura, the representatives of the god they were to yield to.

Drums were beat and on the outskirts of the gathering, numerous riders on their Everplains horses rode as hard as they could back and forth, not to keep any in or out, not to watch for danger, but that the first Khan of the horse people, be crowned to the sound of beating hooves. The drums of the earth were thought to best befit the crowning of the first Khan of the Golden Horde.

All manner of stories sprung up around Chindai between the time of his meteoric rise to power, and the day of his coronation, and Aura decided, for once, to hold her smirk. He was said to be untouchable in battle, that he could avoid a sword that was at his throat, that he knew the body of every enemy better than the mother who bore them or the lover who embraced them, that he could slay a dozen effortlessly. To the warrior people of the plains, he had become a dozen different things. To Aura, the day he'd truly earned that reputation, was the day she'd borrowed and used a few buff scrolls when she'd come within range of him on the battlefield, not that she'd ever tell him about that.

The drumming stopped, Aura and Mare stepped forward from beside the wives, their heterochromatic eyes, the eyes of royalty, their incredible beauty, their noble look and the growing reputation for impossible power as the created agents of the god of the Everplains, put every eye on them.

Aura took the circlet and held it over the lap of the former chief of the Golden arrow. Mare took the other side of the golden circlet, and together they raised it and placed it on top of his head. "In the name of the Sorcerer King, you are crowned Khan of the Dark Elf Kingdom. He shall be your Great Khan, you shall be their Khan, and you will lead your people to ride the world." Aura intoned.

She didn't much care for the ceremony, but as her brother had pointed out, this would make it much easier for Lord Ainz to rule the land, so she went along with it, besides, as she'd thought it over, anyone wearing a crown, should get that from Lord Ainz, or at least someone he'd tasked with representing him.

They stepped back to their positions, and his wives stepped forward to flank him. The new Khan of the Dark Elf Kingdom stood for the first time in his new role and looked over his people.

"Much has happened. Much has yet to be done. It will not be easy, change never is, but we are now the people who will be spoken of in legends for generations to come, we are the people who united, who forged one kingdom out of many tribes. But before the land reclaims our bones, it is not enough that we have a kingdom, we must make it a great one! And before we can make it a great one, we have to avenge ourselves on those who sought our ruin! Who will ride south with their Khan?!" He called out.

Cheers filled the air, only to be suddenly drowned out by a sudden boom from somewhere in the distance, it was followed by another, and another, and another.

"What is that noise?" Someone shouted in awe.

"You might call it the applause of god." Aura said with an enormous grin as she spoke to the masses, "But I call it Gargantua, he's destroying part of the mountain to make a road coming this way so there is a direct path to the Slane Theocracy, and guess what?" She asked loud enough for all to hear.

Questioning looks met her.

"You're on his side now." She said.

Predatory smiles lit a hundred thousand dark elf faces.

Ryla and Khava almost felt sorry for the Slane Theocracy.

Almost.

Not quite.

._..Nazarick..._

The next day, Aura and Mare presented themselves in the throne room to the Sorcerer King and recounted everything that had happened. "Giving him a circlet and presenting it to him for the coronation was very good. That will tell them that 'we' make kings, or 'khans' as they call them, for many generations. It is a good precedent." Ainz said proudly.

"You both did very well, I'm proud of you." Ainz said warmly.

"We're always happy to serve you Lord Ainz, oh, the one called Chindai has expressed a desire to give you his oath personally at some point, and his people have generally accepted that you're a god. Also he wants to meet Neia when the chance comes." Aura said with the usual grin that she wore when reporting to her lord.

Ainz stroked his chin, "Well within expectations then." Ainz said, using 'cryptic statement number three' to pretend he had a plan in mind for that.

Beside him, Albedo and Demiurge looked at one another, their silent communication was now easy, they would be meeting later to discuss what plans their master truly had in mind with what he'd said, and how best they could act in order to execute it to his precise specifications.

Down below, Cocytus remarked, "My lord, it sounds to me like this 'Chindai' has a similar martial art to that of Neia's methods, might I be so bold as to suggest we study it to see if it yields any benefits?"

"Yes, that may well be the first benefit to ruling them instead of the other thing." Ainz said, tacking on 'cryptic statement number two' at the end to keep his guardians thinking he was seeing things they didn't.

"You're growing, Cocytus, I'm proud of you." Ainz said nobly.

"I am not worthy of praise." The insectoid being replied.

Ainz mentally sighed, they always did that. Nobody in Nazarick knew how to take a compliment.

"Now, what of the captured Slane Theocracy agents?" Ainz asked. "Why were they not terminated with the rest of the intelligence apparatus months ago?" He asked.

Vanysa stepped from the wall, her wings trembled at even a hint of displeasure from the Sorcerer King. She pulled out a document. "Master, I have interrogated them continuously since their capture… gently, as you ordered. They are mentally very tough for… ordinary humans. However it seems they are not part of the intelligence apparatus, that is why they were not tracked by others." She said melodically.

"So, who do they work for?" Ainz asked.

"Master, they're part of the military organization of the Slane Theocracy, a sort of decentralized group. Their purpose is to sow dissent, or act as advisors to existing dissident elements, from what I could determine. They do… all kinds of… of terrible things… terrible, terrible things…" She shivered, her eyes went almost mad with the fury lust for punishment and vengeance.

She kept herself contained as best she could and continued, "They work with scriptures, and a few of them had a hand in what happened in Carne village the day Your Majesty graced it. They are not many, but they are scattered everywhere and no one group knows where the others are." She said with some annoyance.

"Do they have a name?" He asked in a neutral voice.

"Sire, they call themselves 'The Gentae'." She said thoughtfully, "Sounds familiar sire, did I see that in one of your books?"

"It doesn't matter." Ainz said casually. "They're all going to die." Ainz answered.

Vanysa's laughter was the first to ring in the throne room, but it was echoed immediately by all, save one.

The Sorcerer King himself did not laugh until he rose from his throne and began to descend its steps.

**-End Story- Thoughts/Reviews?**

**AN: OK, hope you enjoyed this carpet bombing of story chapters. That ends the Dark Plains story. **  
**If you'd like to show your appreciation, you can donate to bdgiving dot org (my charity organization)**  
**If you'd like to support turning these stories into audio books, p atreo n dot com slash you'd like to get early looks at future works, discord invite is on the author page.**

**Last but not least...I'll be away for a few days working on a privately commissioned piece, and building my website, so...till then, hail Ainz. :)**


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